What would it look like to fall into a black hole?

[Soylent Brice]

21:46 01 April 2009 by Stephen Battersby

Video: Falling into a black hole would be a one-off sightseeing trip, so this simulation, calculated by Andrew Hamilton and his team at the University of Colorado, Boulder, is a safer option

Falling into a black hole might not be good for your health, but at least the view would be fine. A new simulation shows what you might see on your way towards the black hole's crushing central singularity. The research could help physicists understand the apparently paradoxical fate of matter and energy in a black hole.

Andrew Hamilton and Gavin Polhemus of the University of Colorado, Boulder, built a computer code based on the equations of Einstein's general theory of relativity, which describes gravity as a distortion of space and time.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16885-what-would-it-look-like-to-fall-into-a-black-hole.html

[NeedleCast]

1. Very Cool...watching someone else fall into a black hole is even freakier

As time dilation peaks as the person falling in reaches the event horizon, they're time relative to yours becomes infinitely slow...so you'd never actually see them "fall" into the event horizon, they'd just hover there, an instant before the horizon, forever (or, rather, for an infinitely long time).

[Soylent Brice]

2. that's weird, but strangely sounds like a blast!

[NeedleCast]

3. I don't pretend to have the math skills to totally understand it

but black holes are fascinating. They create (in theory at least) some crazy effects.

[Soylent Brice]

8. they are indeed, and i'm excited as all hell to see

what comes of the particle accelerator.

[NeedleCast]

9. I'd kinda forgotten about it

Did they get it back up and running yet? The accelerator is great just from the fact that it makes fundies' heads explode. If we get anything out of it, so much the better!

[MADem]

4. Gee, and I thought it would look like the LAST EIGHT YEARS!!!

:rofl:

[NeedleCast]

5. There was a great sucking sound for the last eight years

but I don't think it's because Bush was a singularity.

[Soylent Brice]

7. as Shrub would say, "it's a sinularlility, ya see..."

[Soylent Brice]

6. Touché.

[KansDem]

10. I thought if you fell into a black hole, you would be torn apart

...due to the massive gravity. Your feet would be pulled at a rate faster and stronger than your head, so you would be literally stretched apart.

Not like I'm going to be pulled into a black hole anytime soon...

[Soylent Brice]

11. you never know... do you plan on going to a taping of the TODAY show?

[Kalyke]

20. That's the Memory Hole

which, now that I think about it, is basically the same thing.

[Soylent Brice]

22. ...

:rofl:

[NeedleCast]

12. Depends on How Big it Is

It may seem counter-intuitive, but smaller ones are much more "dangerous."

Here's how it works...without lots of math and physics...to the best of my ability to explain it.

The "black" part of the black hole is called the event horizon. It is the point at which nothing can escape from the singularity at the center of the black hole. The singularity is almost impossible for the human brain to think about...it is a point that is infinitely dense and infinitely small. Once a singularity is formed, it gets smaller and denser forever.

So you've really got two types of singularities. Stellar mass singularities, which are formed when a very large start (at least 1.4 more massive than the sun) goes super-nova are not terribly uncommon. Then you have super-massive black holes, which exist at the center of (probably) every galaxy. These super-massive black holes contain the mass of many hundreds or thousands of very massive stars, all in an infinitely small point.

Okay, so back to the being torn apart. The bigger the "black" part of the black hole, the more massive the singularity at it's center is. With a super-massive black hole, you could get right up to the edge of the event horizon and still escape (assuming you had the capability of generating near light speed acceleration). You'd still be far enough from the singularity that you really wouldn't get much "stretching" effect from it's gravity. In other words, the gravitational forces being applied to your body would still be fairly standard...the pull at your feet and at your head would still be almost equal.

With a stellar-mass black hole, the event horizon is MUCH closer to the singularity itself. If you were near the event horizon of a stellar mass black hole you would not be torn apart so much as stretched to infinity because the gravitational effects near your feet would be much more powerful than those at your head.

Now for the mind bender. WIth a stellar-mass black hole, the gravitational difference at just a few feet of distance can be so great that your feet and legs would be pulled in at a much higher speed than your torso and head...so like anything else falling into a black hole, you'd see your feet hit the event horizon and freeze...forever, because the time dilation at your feet would be much greater than at your eyes.

So here it is. You'd be killed, but in theory, you'd be able to watch yourself be stretched to infinity, forever.

[Soylent Brice]

17. "You'd be killed, but in theory, you'd be able to watch yourself be stretched to infinity, forever."

that is fucking SWEEEEET!

i wish that was a ride at King's Island.

[NeedleCast]

18. Haha, I'm not sure it would be good for business

Generating a singularity anywhere near the earth would be decidedly bad.

[Soylent Brice]

21. like the particle accelerator is doing?

:shrug:

[NeedleCast]

24. To Clarify

Generating a steller-mass singularity anywhere near earth would be bad. Like crossing the beams of a proton-pack bad.

[Soylent Brice]

25. ...

:spray:

gotcha.

[NeedleCast]

26. Here's some info on microscopic black holes from the CERN site

Pretty cool stuff:

Microscopic black holes
Nature forms black holes when certain stars, much larger than our Sun, collapse on themselves at the end of their lives. They concentrate a very large amount of matter in a very small space. Speculations about microscopic black holes at the LHC refer to particles produced in the collisions of pairs of protons, each of which has an energy comparable to that of a mosquito in flight. Astronomical black holes are much heavier than anything that could be produced at the LHC.

According to the well-established properties of gravity, described by Einstein’s relativity, it is impossible for microscopic black holes to be produced at the LHC. There are, however, some speculative theories that predict the production of such particles at the LHC. All these theories predict that these particles would disintegrate immediately. Black holes, therefore, would have no time to start accreting matter and to cause macroscopic effects.

Although theory predicts that microscopic black holes decay rapidly, even hypothetical stable black holes can be shown to be harmless by studying the consequences of their production by cosmic rays. Whilst collisions at the LHC differ from cosmic-ray collisions with astronomical bodies like the Earth in that new particles produced in LHC collisions tend to move more slowly than those produced by cosmic rays, one can still demonstrate their safety. The specific reasons for this depend whether the black holes are electrically charged, or neutral. Many stable black holes would be expected to be electrically charged, since they are created by charged particles. In this case they would interact with ordinary matter and be stopped while traversing the Earth or Sun, whether produced by cosmic rays or the LHC. The fact that the Earth and Sun are still here rules out the possibility that cosmic rays or the LHC could produce dangerous charged microscopic black holes. If stable microscopic black holes had no electric charge, their interactions with the Earth would be very weak. Those produced by cosmic rays would pass harmlessly through the Earth into space, whereas those produced by the LHC could remain on Earth. However, there are much larger and denser astronomical bodies than the Earth in the Universe. Black holes produced in cosmic-ray collisions with bodies such as neutron stars and white dwarf stars would be brought to rest. The continued existence of such dense bodies, as well as the Earth, rules out the possibility of the LHC producing any dangerous black holes.



= bad

[NeedleCast]

19. Dupe

My internet connection is turnning into a black hole...

[hfojvt]

28. the universe itself is a black hole, so we don't have to speculate

of course I don't believe in singularities either. Consider that the universe has a mass, something like 10 to the 79th atomic units, and also a radius. The escape velocity of the universe is greater than the speed of light, making it a black hole.

At least in my study of black holes some 30 years ago. When they get very large, their actual density is pretty low.

[Fumesucker]

13. It depends entirely on the size of the black hole..

A really big one, like the one at the center of most galaxies, you wouldn't even notice crossing the event horizon.

An interesting phenomenon associated with black holes is the photon sphere, at just that radius from the singularity where photons orbit continually around the center of mass.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photon_sphere

Rotating black holes (Kerr or Kerr-Newman, depending on whether it is charged or not) have two photon spheres, a closer one orbiting in the same direction as the black hole and a further one orbiting in the opposite direction.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotating_black_hole

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

14. It's actually well known what happens when you fall into one.

You end up in hell.



:evilgrin:

[NeedleCast]

15. Damn, now I have to go watch that movie again

been forever since I've seen it.

[Winterblues]

16. According to a show I saw last night "Universe" every galaxy has at it's center

a huge black hole. It is like all the stars in the galaxy are spiraling around a drain hole and the closer to the hole the greater amount of matter and light/heat. It was fascinating. They found this out by using infrared searches and discovered every galaxy has a very strong heat source at it's center, like the core and they figure that is caused by a black hole. :shrug: I love that show..

[bmbmd]

23. Oh my god.

It's full of stars.

[jimnasium]

27. I don't care what universe you're from...

That's GOTTA Hurt!

[NeedleCast]

29. Not really, the earth has already been destroyed

http://qntm.org/?board - so really, it doesn't matter either way.

EARTH-DESTRUCTION ALERT LEVEL: RED

A "Red" Earth-Destruction Alert Level (EDA Level) indicates that the Earth has been destroyed. If the Earth had not been destroyed, the EDA Level would be set at "Green".

CURRENT GEOCIDE COUNT: 1
The Current Geocide Count (CGC) indicates in real time how many geocides have taken place; that is, the number of times the Earth has been destroyed. A value of "1" indicates that at present, the Earth has been destroyed. If the Earth had not been destroyed, the CGC would read "0".

FAQ
THE EARTH HAS BEEN DESTROYED! WHAT DO I DO?!!
Don't panic.

If you took the advice in our leaflet, "Preparing For Geocide", you will have made arrangements for this eventuality by preparing a Geocide Refuge either on a space station, ark ship, or other Earth-like planet. If you have done this, now is the time to make your way to your refuge. Do not stop to collect belongings, pets, or sentimental souvenirs of Earth, such as rocks.

If you have not prepared a Geocide Refuge and your local governing body has not created one for you, your best bet is to signal for help using a walkie-talkie or cellular telephone. Possibly a passing extraterrestrial will rescue you.

My baby's in there!
Your baby has most likely been destroyed.

The Earth hasn't been destroyed! What are you talking about?
Some of you will find it tougher to let go than others. There will be counselling sessions running on Pluto starting in mid-April. The first is at 7:15pm on Thursday 18th. BYOO2.