Black Holes

cheerfulgreek · #1 05-19-2008, 02:08 PM

This past weekend I went to a bunch of science museums and I had a wonderful time. One of the things that were being discussed were black holes and how they form and grow. I got a chance to talk with an astrophysicist on the subject.

He was just saying that they're very difficult to find, but shortly after what scientist believe to be the Big Bang theory they were much more common. I knew somewhat about them, but a lot of things I didn't know. He said something to the effect of when a star begins to die, it starts to expand, from gas falling into it. The gas traps more heat into the star making it hotter. Once it's super hot, reactions inside the star carry away heat. Once the star loses it's heat it collapses in on itself creating a small black hole. After that, it starts to consume the gas around it, making it even larger. He said at one time there were some that were 10,000 times larger than our own sun. That' massive.

I wonder what kind of effects it would have on Earth and our solar system if a huge one developed within our galaxy or slightly outside of our galaxy. I wonder if we would be able to see it with the naked eye?

Kevlar281 · #2 05-19-2008, 03:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cheerfulgreek

I wonder what kind of effects it would have on Earth and our solar system if a huge one developed within our galaxy or slightly outside of our galaxy. I wonder if we would be able to see it with the naked eye?

We would be screwed. Google "Rogue Black Holes" for some scary bedtime reading.

cheerfulgreek · #3 05-20-2008, 10:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kevlar281

We would be screwed. Google "Rogue Black Holes" for some scary bedtime reading.

Whatever.

RU OX Alum · #4 05-20-2008, 10:55 AM

this is interesting, i wish i knew more about them so i could contribute

Senusret I · #5 05-20-2008, 10:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cheerfulgreek

Whatever.

I don't understand this response....

Anyway, I checked out rogue black holes and it was REALLY interesting.

Black holes have always been a little scary to me, ever since that damn movie came out in the 70s with the trippy ending.

cheerfulgreek · #6 05-20-2008, 11:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Senusret I

I don't understand this response....

Anyway, I checked out rogue black holes and it was REALLY interesting.

Black holes have always been a little scary to me, ever since that damn movie came out in the 70s with the trippy ending.

Senusret, I just thought he was being sarcastic with the bedtime story response.

cheerfulgreek · #7 05-20-2008, 11:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RU OX Alum

this is interesting, i wish i knew more about them so i could contribute

I wish I knew what was inside of them. Of course no one will ever know.

Oh and to Senusret, Yes, the 1979 Black Hole Movie was so good.

RU OX Alum · #8 05-20-2008, 11:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cheerfulgreek

I wish I knew what was inside of them. Of course no one will ever know.

Oh and to Senusret, Yes, the 1979 Black Hole Movie was so good.

do you think it would be possible to travel through them? Do they go some place? Or is it just a collection of collapsed gasses that are breaking down, and isn't really a "hole" in that sense.

cheerfulgreek · #9 05-20-2008, 11:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RU OX Alum

do you think it would be possible to travel through them? Do they go some place? Or is it just a collection of collapsed gasses that are breaking down, and isn't really a "hole" in that sense.

I don't know that much about them. I do know they move through space though. Right now I don't think it would be possible to travel through one, because we would be stretched and ripped apart, atom by atom.

Well, it really is a hole in space. Gas clouds that collapse under gravity form a star, but if the gas cloud falls too quickly into the star that was created, it creates some sort of shock wave that heats the star, which causes it to expand. The gas envelope traps the heat and squeezes the star making it even hotter. Like I was saying earlier, I think the extreme heat causes some kind of reaction inside the star, and then it starts to cool down. I guess I star needs heat in order to keep from falling in on itself because of the extreme gravity. I think once it cools down to the point where it can't resist the gravity, it collapses in on itself which forms into a small black hole from the start. It only gets larger by consuming gas and other objects around it. If two black holes collide then the new black hole becomes one huge behemoth.

What I don't understand is what's the difference between a black hole star and a star? I guess if our Sun were to die, it would expand, and then turn into a white dwarf star and die. I don't know if it would form a black hole or not.

RU OX Alum · #10 05-20-2008, 11:53 AM

I've wondered about that too. Our Sun being a black hole that is.

This is very intriqueing to me, because I always imagined space to be empty, i.e. the Hole would be made of the same nothing as the space that surouned it.

Tom Earp · #11 05-20-2008, 02:27 PM

I think a black hole is an absorbtion of all in its path!

Like a big vacum sweeper, oops, it is sucked in and gone!

epchick · #12 05-20-2008, 03:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cheerfulgreek

What I don't understand is what's the difference between a black hole star and a star? I guess if our Sun were to die, it would expand, and then turn into a white dwarf star and die. I don't know if it would form a black hole or not.

According to the shows on the Discovery Channel that i've watched, then yes our sun would become a black hole. Once our sun exploded it would start to form a small black hole. As the black hole continues to suck everything in to its center it would get bigger.

Quote:

I wonder what kind of effects it would have on Earth and our solar system if a huge one developed within our galaxy or slightly outside of our galaxy. I wonder if we would be able to see it with the naked eye?

If I remember the show correctly, we wouldn't be able to see the black hole w/ our naked eye, but the flares that shoot off from teh center would be able to be seen (depending on how far away our Earth is from the black hole). Our Earth would eventually be sucked into the outskirts of the black hole.

Also on this episode, scientists said that a black hole in our galaxy is going to form as well as a bigger black hole in Andromeda (the galaxy closest to ours). Since our galaxies are moving closer to each other, the black holes would attract each other until Andromeda's black holes consumes ours making a giant black hole (i believe they had a special name for it, but i dont remember) and then our galaxies would crash and it would creat one big galaxy.

AKA_Monet · #13 05-20-2008, 07:24 PM

What makes me confused is the difference with a galaxy, quasars and solar system.

I have seen bunches of stars in a telescope together in one part of our galaxy, the Milky Way. Then I have seen stars of many colors. I have seen the gas rings and dot on Jupiter and I have seen the general Milky Way clouds at night at Mauna Loa.

What is amazing about all of this is they astrophysicists think big, and the microscopists think small...

There are also "white holes"... Don't ask me how to calculate their existence--but they do exist--at least mathematically.

PrettyBoy · #14 05-20-2008, 07:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cheerfulgreek

This past weekend I went to a bunch of science museums and I had a wonderful time. One of the things that were being discussed were black holes and how they form and grow. I got a chance to talk with an astrophysicist on the subject.

He was just saying that they're very difficult to find, but shortly after what scientist believe to be the Big Bang theory they were much more common. I knew somewhat about them, but a lot of things I didn't know. He said something to the effect of when a star begins to die, it starts to expand, from gas falling into it. The gas traps more heat into the star making it hotter. Once it's super hot, reactions inside the star carry away heat. Once the star loses it's heat it collapses in on itself creating a small black hole. After that, it starts to consume the gas around it, making it even larger. He said at one time there were some that were 10,000 times larger than our own sun. That' massive.

I wonder what kind of effects it would have on Earth and our solar system if a huge one developed within our galaxy or slightly outside of our galaxy. I wonder if we would be able to see it with the naked eye?

LOL

I knew it!

nate2512 · #15 05-20-2008, 10:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cheerfulgreek

This past weekend I went to a bunch of science museums and I had a wonderful time. One of the things that were being discussed were black holes and how they form and grow. I got a chance to talk with an astrophysicist on the subject.

He was just saying that they're very difficult to find, but shortly after what scientist believe to be the Big Bang theory they were much more common. I knew somewhat about them, but a lot of things I didn't know. He said something to the effect of when a star begins to die, it starts to expand, from gas falling into it. The gas traps more heat into the star making it hotter. Once it's super hot, reactions inside the star carry away heat. Once the star loses it's heat it collapses in on itself creating a small black hole. After that, it starts to consume the gas around it, making it even larger. He said at one time there were some that were 10,000 times larger than our own sun. That' massive.

I wonder what kind of effects it would have on Earth and our solar system if a huge one developed within our galaxy or slightly outside of our galaxy. I wonder if we would be able to see it with the naked eye?

I watched a thing on the history channel tonight about the universe. They said this won't be a problem until 1 trillion a.d. Apparently at that point the sun will become a black hole and implode the entire universe creating another big bang.