Fast-spinning black holes might reveal all

New Scientist ^ | 08 August 2009 | Marcus Chown

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

IT IS the ultimate cosmic villain: space and time come to an abrupt end in its presence and the laws of physics break down. Now it seems a "naked" black hole may yet emerge in our universe, after spinning away its event horizon.

[Telepathic Intruder]

I’m still not entirely sure what frame-dragging is all about.

[onedoug]

They may reveal all. But then again, they might not.

[SunkenCiv]

http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/blackhole/index

http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/blackholes/index

[SunkenCiv]

An unusual joint ping message to the Catastrophism and String Theory lists, some related topics, some more related than others. :')

• Second black hole found at the centre of our Galaxy">
• Scientists Spy Cosmic Waves Around Black Hole">
• Black Hole Puts Dent In Space-time">
• Spinning black hole pushes the speed limit">
• XMM-Newton takes astronomers to a black hole's edge (swallowing equivalent of two Earths per hour)">
• Close-up Look at Black Hole Reveals Feeding Frenzy">
• A Real Whopper: Black Hole Is Most Massive Known (M87 - HUGHer by 2 or 3 times than speculated)">
• Warp Drive Engine Could Suck Earth Into Black Hole">
• Astronomy Picture of the Day 6-01-03">

[SunkenCiv]

thanks Ernest_at_the_Beach!

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[NormsRevenge]

at it’s essence, what is a black hole anyway?

It is certainly a couple clicks up the Intergalactic scale of destructive entities, above a demoncRatically controlled Congre$$, but not by much. ;-)

Hey , a black hole has got to do what a black hole has to do.. and like Vegas,, what gets sucked in the black hole, stays in the black hole. or does it? :-}

[beethovenfan]

There’s one in the White House right now.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

I want to see a naked blackhole...astronomically speaking....

[PreciousLiberty]

“at it’s essence, what is a black hole anyway?”

A black hole is an object which has an escape velocity greater than the speed of light. The distance from the center (singularity) where the gravity gets that intense is called the “event horizon”. It is currently thought impossible for an object or information from an object to return to the “normal universe” once the object has crossed the event horizon. There is strong observational evidence that every galaxy has a black hole in the center, up to over 1 billion solar masses in size. The black holes at the center of galaxies eat gas, dust and the occasional star.

The “normal” way for a black hole to form is from a star of several times the Sun’s mass (below that they form white dwarfs or neutron stars). White dwarfs and neutron stars form when the nuclear fusion power source at the center of the star runs out of fuel. For stars in this size range, gravity crushes the inert mass of the star until all this is left is a sea of elementary particles (white dwarf) or neutrons (neutron star). The process of forming the black hole usually involves a supernova stellar explosion, as is the case for neutron stars also. The difference is that with black hole formation, the star is more massive and when the neutron star forms, the gravity is so intense it overcomes the integral resistance of neutrons to being crushed. The neutrons then compress towards a point mass, and the physical surface withdraws within the event horizon.

Just as a for instance, the event horizon of a 20 million solar mass black hole is quite a bit smaller than (~20%) the Earth’s orbit. Of course, if something that massive replaced the Sun, the Earth’s year would only be about two hours long. ;^)

[allmost]

The basic assumption here seems wrong to me. They treat the event horizon as though it is something physical that can be shed.

[SuperLuminal]

Dang! Just think of the ping-response traffic you would generate if you padded the prefix “a_” to the word “hole” in that list...{:-)

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Uhhhh....I’m not going there....LOL!

[SunkenCiv]

Having one in the Whi- oh, wait, that one isn’t even half black.