2 weeks Ago By Popular Mechanics
As the most exotic celestial object in the known universe , black holes have long been the obsession of science and science fiction alike. Films like 2001: A Space Odyssey and Interstellar artfully ponder what happens to a human body beyond a black hole’s event horizon—the point at which even light cannot escape the immense well of gravity. But scientists have been exploring more empirical ways to explain what happens at the singularity of a black hole —the theoretical point, infinitely small and infinitely dense, where all known physics breaks down.
Most conceptions of a black hole focus on destruction. Were a person to somehow experience such a journey to the center of black hole, for example, their very atoms would be ripped apart in a process inventively called “ spaghettification .” However, a new study conducted by scientists at the University of Sheffield and Universidad Complutense de Madrid posits another outcome for all matter that enters the gaping maw of black hole: maybe it’s not an end, but a beginning instead.
The results of the study were published in the journal Physical Review Letters . “It has long been a question as to whether quantum mechanics can change our understanding of black holes and give us insights into their true nature,” Steffen Gielen, the co-author of the paper from the University of Sheffield, said in a press statement . “In quantum mechanics, time as we understand it cannot end as systems perpetually change and evolve.
” The study uses a simplified theoretical model of a black hole (a two-dimensional planar black hole), but the authors say the same results would apply to a typical black hole. In this study, the authors suggest that instead of matter and time essentially being crushed into nothing, it may transition into a new phase called a “white hole.” As its name suggests, a white hole is everything a black hole isn’t .
Instead of sucking in space and time, it regurgitates it back into the universe. In a “woah, if true” statement, white holes could theoretically be where time begins. “While time is, in general, thought to be relative to the observer, in our research time is derived from the mysterious dark energy which permeates the entire universe,” Gielen said in a press statement.
“We propose that time is measured by the dark energy that is everywhere in the universe, and responsible for its current expansion. This is the pivotal new idea that allows us to grasp the phenomena occurring within a black hole.” Gielen added that, theoretically, our previous black hole traveler could possibly move past singularity and emerge from a white hole.
“It’s a highly abstract notion of an observer but it could happen, in theory,” he said. Of course, white holes are not a new idea, and were first proposed way back in the 1930s. But what little we know about black holes the same can be doubly said for white holes.
For now, we may have to rely on the minds of artists to portray what exactly is going on in these immensely strange regions of deep space . You Might Also Like.
