Black Holes

[cheerfulgreek]

Originally Posted by epchick

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.




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.

This is really good. I always wondered if we would be able to see it from here. I've heard about two different studies on the sun. I heard that it would form a black hole too, but I also heard that it would just turn into a white dwarf. It is true that not every star forms into a black hole though. I just don't know how scientist know which ones are, and which ones are not.

Yep, this is so true. As a black hole eats, it's diameter grows in direct proportion to it's mass. So, for this reason they can be almost any size, but not all of them will spaghettify you before you cross the event horizon.

Did you ever have physics in undergrad? If you did, do you remember Tidal Force? It's kind of related to black holes I guess. I would think the smaller black holes would really do most of the ripping apart, because the tidal force would seem to be greater if the size of the object going in is large compared with the distance to the center of the object. Like for example. Let's say a 6 foot man falls feet 1st toward a 6 foot black hole (this is just an example not real size), then at the event horizon, his head is twice as far away from the black hole's center as his feet. Here, the difference in the force of gravity from his feet to his head would be pretty large...wouldn't it? But let's say the hole were 6,000 feet across, then wouldn't the same guy's feet be only 1/10th of 1% closer to the center than his head? I'm thinking the difference in gravity (the tidal force) would be correspondingly small..wouldn't it?

I dunno. It just seems logical.

[epchick]

Originally Posted by cheerfulgreek

This is really good. I always wondered if we would be able to see it from here. I've heard about two different studies on the sun. I heard that it would form a black hole too, but I also heard that it would just turn into a white dwarf. It is true that not every star forms into a black hole though. I just don't know how scientist know which ones are, and which ones are not.

Wouldn't a dwarf star eventually turn into a black hole? Ehhh who knows, i'm not a scientist.

No I didn't take physics, I dropped it after like the 2nd day cause i didn't wanna be a biology major anymore.

[cheerfulgreek]

Originally Posted by epchick

Wouldn't a dwarf star eventually turn into a black hole? Ehhh who knows, i'm not a scientist.

No I didn't take physics, I dropped it after like the 2nd day cause i didn't wanna be a biology major anymore.

Not necessarily. A white dwarf is the final phase in the evolution of stars like our Sun. They go through what scientist call the Red Giant phase before they turn into a dwarf star. If our Sun were to turn into a black hole, Earth along with Mercury, Venus and possibly Mars would be toast during the Red Giant phase, long before a black hole develops. They only form black holes if they collapse in on themselves from heat leaving the star. As the star cools, it gradually becomes more dense, until eventually when the core is around the size of Earth, some kind of chemical electron reaction takes place. I'm not sure what kind but it's something to that effect. Anyway, when this takes place, in some stars the pressure prevents the electrons from getting too close together which prevents any further collapse. If it doesn't turn into a black hole it just won't give off anymore energy.

Lucky you. I had a dual major. Zoology and biology with a minor in chemistry. Unfortunately physics was required for me. I hated it.

What you said about Andromeda M31 was right on though.

[Tom Earp]

Wonder what Mork and Captain Kirk would say about this?

[RU OX Alum]

everytime i see this thread, the song by muse pops into my head

[cheerfulgreek]

Originally Posted by RU OX Alum

everytime i see this thread, the song by muse pops into my head

What song is that?