For 100 years, Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity has survived just about every test that physicists have thrown at it. Announced in November 1915, the famous scientist’s field equations expanded on Isaac Newton’s long-standing laws by re-imagining gravity as a warping in the fabric of space and time, rather than a simple force between objects.
The results of using general relativity equations actually look similar to what you get using Newton’s math, as long as the masses involved aren’t too large and the velocities are relatively small compared to the speed of light. But the concept was a revolution for physics.
Warped space-time means that light itself is affected by gravity much more strongly than Newton predicted. It also means that planets move around their orbits in a slightly altered but very significant way, and it predicts the existence of exotic objects such as monster black holes and wormholes.
.
These galaxies are smiling at you thanks to general relativity. (NASA/ESA)
.
Black holes might end their lives by transforming into their exact opposite — ‘white holes’ that explosively pour all the material they ever swallowed into space, say two physicists. The suggestion, based on a speculative quantum theory of gravity, could solve a long-standing conundrum about whether black holes destroy information.
The theory suggests that the transition from black hole to white hole would take place right after the initial formation of the black hole, but because gravity dilates time, outside observers would see the black hole lasting billions or trillions of years or more, depending on its size. If the authors are correct, tiny black holes that formed during the very early history of the Universe would now be ready to pop off like firecrackers and might be detected as high-energy cosmic rays or other radiation. In fact, they say, their work could imply that some of the dramatic flares commonly considered to be supernova explosions could in fact be the dying throes of tiny black holes that formed shortly after the Big Bang.
.
Artist’s conception of a black hole. | MARK GARLICK via Getty Images
When a black hole swallows a star, things get violent. Very violent.
At least, that’s what scientists found in a new study when they used computer simulations to mimic the destruction of a star as it falls into a giant black hole. Just check it out in the video.
The simulations show that when the gravitational force of a supermassive black hole pulls in a star, the star is stretched into a long blob before it’s destroyed. About half of the star’s mass may get ejected as a stream of debris and the other half eventually may spiral into the black hole, forming what’s called an “accretion disk.”
.
Illustration of a star distorted by supermassive black hole.
In the next five years or so, scientists are poised to discover proof that space and time can wrinkle in the form of gravitational waves. These waves were predicted almost 100 years ago by Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity, but have yet to be seen.
That could change soon when the latest, most sensitive experiments hunting gravitational waves come online. “There’s so much activity and excitement in the field right now,” said Mansi M. Kasliwal, an astronomer at the Observatories of the Carnegie Institution for Science in Pasadena, Calif. “The momentum is really building.”
Kasliwal is the author of a paper published online today (May 2) in the journal Science describing the burgeoning field of gravitational wave studies.
.
3D visualization of gravitational waves produced by two orbiting black holes.
.
.Click link below for story, slideshow, and video:
Researchers have proposed a new means for getting a measure of just how massive supermassive black holes are.
They are known to exist at the centres of most galaxies, but a puzzle remains as to how they affect galaxy evolution.
The approach, published in Nature, infers a black hole’s mass from the speed of molecules swirling around it.
It could help weigh hundreds of nearby black holes. Its first use suggests a black hole in the NGC4526 galaxy weighs 450 million times that of our Sun.
Astronomers have seen a distant galaxy that blasts away material with two trillion times the energy the sun emits — the biggest such eruption ever seen. That ejection of matter could answer an important question about the universe: why are the black holes in the centers of galaxies so light?
Computer models of the early universe usually produce a virtual cosmos that looks like ours except for one thing. The ratio of the mass of black holes in galaxy centers to the rest of the matter in galaxies is larger in the simulations than in the real universe.
.
.
.Click link below for story, slideshow, and video:
MURCHISON, Australia (Reuters) – In the remote Australian outback, scientists have launched the world’s fastest radio telescope which will exponentially increase astronomers’ ability to survey the universe, mapping black holes and shedding new light on the origins of galaxies.
Explore the dynamic relationship between faith and science, where curiosity meets belief. Join us in fostering dialogue, inspiring discovery, and celebrating the profound connections that enrich our understanding of existence.
James' World 2 