Black Holes As We Know Them May Not Exist

[Judi Lynn]

By Mara Johnson-Groh - Live Science Contributor 12 hours ago Space

They may be something else entirely.



If you were to dive into a black hole (something we would not recommend), you"d likely find a singularity, or an infinitely small and dense point, at the center. Or that"s what physicists have always thought.

But now a pair of scientists suggests that some black holes may not be black holes at all. Instead, they may be weird objects chock-full of dark energy — the mysterious force thought to be pushing at the bounds of the universe, causing it to expand at an ever-increasing rate.

"If what we thought were black holes are actually objects without singularities, then the accelerated expansion of our universe is a natural consequence of Einstein's theory of general relativity," said Kevin Croker, an astrophysicist at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa.

Croker and a colleague describe this idea in a new study, published online Aug. 28 in the Astrophysical Journal. If they are right, and the singularity at the heart of a black hole could be replaced by a weird energy flinging everything apart, that may revolutionize the way we think about these dense objects.

More:
https://www.livescience.com/black-holes-may-not-exist.html

[Bernardo de La Paz]

1. Fascinating. Thanks for bring us these diverse reports. . . . . nt

[qazplm135]

2. I don't think so

I'm certainly not as smart as any of these guys, but I suspect this isn't the answer.

[tblue37]

3. K&R. nt

[gordianot]

4. When it comes down to it we humans have huge gaps in our knowledge.

Maybe an exception for the stable geniuses among us.

[Karadeniz]

5. I can't keep up!!!!!

[rurallib]

6. I so appreciate your science posts

Sometimes, like this one, they make my brain hurt.

[Judi Lynn]

9. There's a constantly renewing source of material daily on the internetS, or the system of tubes.

(You could tell how much Republicans relished the new mass information resource when they coined such wonderful terms.)

It's continuously amazing seeing them springing forward with no prompting. I'm so glad we have access we never dreamed of not so long ago.

Thank you, so much, rurallib.

[Rollo]

7. Many years ago I worked as a student assistant on a research project about a suspected black hole...

Running lab measurements on various light detectors. Even got a technical mention on the resultant paper. My main contribution was, apparently, that I knew so little that I didn't make any assumptions about what the data should be, so presented it all as is. Which I guess solved a problem they were having. I opted to go in a different direction (biology) but have been fascinated by the black hole theory ever since.

It still boggles my mind that we don't really know the extent of the universe, or if it's infinite, or what.

Sometimes I wonder if I should have stuck with the astronomy.

But I can still see stars at night.

[BadgerKid]

8. The term singularity has always had an * after it.

*Einstein's theory predicts a mathematical singularity, but it also doesn't apply inside the event horizon. Some believe a theory of quantum gravity will clarify the situation.

[Judi Lynn]

10. Thank you, BadgerKid.

[sir pball]

11. This has been a thing for decades

It's true we don't know what's going on inside the event horizon. Could be a singularity, could be dark energy, could be Grokkar the Supreme sucking matter up with a straw. It's all sort of incidental, since by definition we can't know a damn thing about what's happening past the boundary where we do know for sure that the gravitational attraction exceeds the speed of light.

"Black holes are where God divided by zero."

[qazplm135]

12. yes but paper or plastic straw?

I'd like to think Grokkar is at least ecologically aware.