Saturday, April 2, 2016

B is for . . .















Wikimedia Commons CC By SA 2.5

Black Holes. And I'm not talking about your basement or the magical portal where all your free time disappears into. According to Wikipedia: a black hole is a region of spacetime exhibiting such strong gravitational effects that nothing—including particles and electromagnetic radiation such as light—can escape from inside it. Whoa.

Another way to think of it is imagining a massive amount of matter (like a star ten times bigger than the sun) being packed into a space the size of New York City. (Yo, NASA!

Movie Trivia Quiz: The boundary of the black hole from which no escape is possible shares the same name as the title of a 1997 sci-fi flick involving a missing space ship. This ship was designed to travel through an artificial black hole in order to move faster than the speed of light. Great idea, right? Well, not really. The ship got sucked into a hell-like dimension and all the crew members went kuckoo and . . . well, let's just say they ended up taking a dirt nap. 


And speaking of dirt naps (except where would you find dirt in space?) let's discuss your demise if you got sucked into a black hole outside of Hollywood. According to this Popular Science article, the traditional death goes like this:

As you fall feet first across an event horizon (that's the answer to the movie trivial quiz, y'all)—the point where nothing can escape the black hole’s gravitational pull—you don’t feel anything change. But eventually, gravity is so much stronger at your feet than your head that you’re stretched apart, like Play-Doh, until you snap.

The second theory is a bit harder to understand without reading the entire article (which is really cool if you're into this stuff), so I'll shorten it to this:

You're incinerated.

The third theory in this article postulates the existence of a wormhole inside the black hole. Now when certain particles of you get sucked in, they are transferred to another part of the universe where they might meet up with the particles of you that didn't get sucked in. And you're okay! Whew. What a relief, huh?

This controversy started when Stephen Hawking pointed out that the principals of quantum physics and general relativity can't both be true near a black hole. Say what? Well, quantum physics is about how tiny particles, like atoms, work. General relativity is concerned with how massive objects, like galaxies, work. (I bet you feel smarter already.) Black holes are both huge and small at the same time. (Ding-dang it! Now we're back to confused.)

Anyway, did you ever see Event Horizon? I did, but I don't remember it much. That was almost 20 years ago! I'm doing well to remember what happened 20 minutes ago.

12 comments:

  1. Oh dear, not a good thing, no matter whose version you believe. Hubby loves watching these science shows and I get pulled in too. LOL pun intended. But black holes go way over my head, hope it stays that way. :)
    Love your theme! I'm sure to learn something.

    Happy Second Day of the A to Z!
    Ninga Minion @YolandaRenee from
    Defending The Pen
    Parallels
    Murderous Imaginings
    It's official, I have to! LOL

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  2. Event Horizon! I got it right away. Very creepy film.

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  3. Science is awesome! I don't think I would want to take part in testing which of those theories about black holes is correct...

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  4. I always enjoy the beginning of Event Horizon, but am disappointed by the end. It happens every time I watch it - I think I block out the end from my memory deliberately :)
    Tasha
    Tasha's Thinkings | Wittegen Press | FB3X (AC)

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  5. Hi Me! Let's see if this signature thingy works.

    [Tamara Narayan] from Tamara Narayan

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  6. Black holes, I sort of get the basic premise... but as soon as I start to even try and think about it my brain just turns to jelly. I sometimes think that the me that started to study maths at University level was a me in a different universe, I think my brain has changed since that time!

    I don't think I've seen Event Horizon, but I do have what I call a Goldfish Movie brain where I forget the plot about 30 seconds after watching the movie...

    Mars xx
    @TrollbeadBlog from
    Curling Stones for Lego People

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  7. Black holes is a subject I find interesting. It's both fascinating and terrifying.

    ~Patricia Lynne aka Patricia Josephine~
    Story Dam
    Patricia Lynne, Indie Author

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  8. Interesting, I love learning new things. You never know when that knowledge might come in handy. Have fun with the A to Z!
    @ScarlettBraden from
    Frankly Scarlett

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  9. The event horizon is also known as the Schwarzchild radius, but I think there's no movie with the latter name >:)

    Cold As Heaven

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  10. Wow. I'm now fascinated and frightened of black holes!
    GO Science!

    Heather M. Gardner / @hmgardner
    Co-Host, Blogging from A to Z April Challenge
    The Waiting is the Hardest Part

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