First "black hole" for light created on Earth

[Ian David]

Source: New Scientist

An electromagnetic "black holeMovie Camera" that sucks in surrounding light has been built for the first time.

The device, which works at microwave frequencies, may soon be extended to trap visible light, leading to an entirely new way of harvesting solar energy to generate electricity.

A theoretical design for a table-top black hole to trap light was proposed in a paper published earlier this year by Evgenii Narimanov and Alexander Kildishev of Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. Their idea was to mimic the properties of a cosmological black hole, whose intense gravity bends the surrounding space-time, causing any nearby matter or radiation to follow the warped space-time and spiral inwards.

Narimanov and Kildishev reasoned that it should be possible to build a device that makes light curve inwards towards its centre in a similar way. They calculated that this could be done by a cylindrical structure consisting of a central core surrounded by a shell of concentric rings.

<snip>

Now Tie Jun Cui and Qiang Cheng at the Southeast University in Nanjing, China, have turned Narimanov and Kildishev's theory into practice, and built a "black hole" for microwave frequencies. It is made of 60 annular strips of so-called "meta-materials", which have previously been used to make invisibility cloaks.





Read more: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17980-black-hole-for-light-created-on-earth.html

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FYI: No, it's not a real Black Hole.


Hat-tip to: http://twitter.com/newscientist/statuses/4866062344

[targetpractice]

1. I just rented "The Black Hole" from iTunes last weekend...

And, it seems that it is a remastered version with new and cleaned-up special effects. Plus, they erased all the wires that were visible holding up the flying robots in the first movie.

Anyways, that's my black hole contribution for today. ;-)

[Kablooie]

26. Stephen Hawking uses that film in his lectures to show what it's like inside a black hole.

It's a bunch of catwalks with guys in monks robes walking around.

[TheCoxwain]

2. Wrong .. a bunch of Black holes already exist ..

Foxnews is blackhole for truth for instance .. its been around for a while

[winyanstaz]

5. hahahaa

aint that the truth?

[Uncle Joe]

10. It was the truth but

FOX "News" just sucked it up, damn!

[winyanstaz]

18. maybe we could use Rushs big fat fanny to plug Fox's black hole..

:)

[question everything]

3. But.. but... the world is only several thousands years old

and men walked with dinosaurs.

:sarcasm:

These are great news. Thanks for posting.

[tridim]

4. Is it warping space-time or just moving photons around?

[Ian David]

7. It's just moving photons around and sucking them in.

It doesn't create a super-dense gravitational mass.

[tridim]

11. Too bad, because then I'd get excited.

I can bend light all day long with a glass of water.

[Ian David]

12. But the light eventually gets out of a glass of water. n/t

[Regret My New Name]

17. I'm sure people will overreact and say they're going to destroy the earth though...

[Soylent Brice]

6. neato.

science RULES.

[daggahead]

8. Another black hole ...

The Republicans. They are the black hole of truth, integrity, honesty and hope.

:bluebox:

[TheCoxwain]

9. I CAN THINK OF A POTENTIAL APPLICATION

I will wear this gadget on me that will make me invisible ...

I will then go an break Rush Limbaughs Nose -- SMACK -- right in the middle of his talk show ...


Boy !!! wouldnt that be fun


On edit :


I just noticed the OP has a Limbaugh with a long 'Pinocchio' nose .... This is a co-incidence or what ???

[glinda]

if only the "black hole" could suck up certain people....

[DetlefK]

13. This is old news: It's not a Black Hole, it's a cloaking device.

A magnetic field with a special configuration is used to implement a certain diffraction index. This is used to guide photons in a certain way. For example, you can prevent, that the image of an object in the center of the rings can be seen.

But for now, you can only cloak things in the microwave spectrum, not the visible spectrum.

[Ian David]

15. They've taken the "cloaking" thing and turned it into an inward spiral. n/t

[smoogatz]

14. Too cool.

This stuff is so far beyond my intellectual grasp it leaves me sputtering in amazement. Metamaterials? Holy crap.

[DBoon]

16. research scientists at my company have actually created a small black hole

it currently resides in the HR department.....

[Wizard777]

19. So this "black hole" device uses electromagnetism absorbs light and converts it to heat.

Electromagnetism aside. That differs from the color (monochromatic actually) black how? The color or monochromatic black also absorbs light and converts it to heat. As for solar uses. It will generate more electricity than the electromagnetic field uses?

[Phoonzang]

20. Damn you had me excited for a second there.

A real man made black hole! Imagine the destructive power. Entire cities destroyed. Continents cracking. Humanity kneeling at my feet... But alas....

[Goldom]

21. So wait,

"which have previously been used to make invisibility cloaks"

We have invisibility cloaks? Why haven't I been told about this, and where is mine?

[MindPilot]

22. I suspect it is being used to hide the perpetual motion machine

which of course runs on free energy.

[Ian David]

24. Here- LAT: Scientists Manage Disappearing Act: "Invisibility Cloak"

Holy crap! London scientists discover the key to invisibility!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=105x5433926

LAT: Scientists Manage Disappearing Act: "Invisibility Cloak"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2571226

Scientists Create Cloak of Invisibility
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=228x24418

[MindPilot]

23. Um, pass the cold fusion, please.

And where is my flying car, damnit?

[troubledamerican]

25. Cheney's dream

[Ter]

27. I love science

But I don't like this idea at all. Playing with fire...

[high density]

28. Into the hole. NM