Black Holes

Tom Earp · #1 05-21-2008, 03:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cheerfulgreek

Black holes are just regions of space where the gravity is so high that it causes space and time to curve back on itself taking any and all exits with it. In other words no escape.

Another way to look at it is all objects have escape speeds. For example let's say Earth's escape speed is 100 mph, then to escape Earth's gravity an object would have to travel faster than 100 mph to leave the planet entirely. The difference between a black hole and Earth is, a black hole doesn't have any escape speeds. Not even the speed of light can escape.

Wow, I am impressed! So a Black Hole is just a sponge but on a bigger level!

It is not a slingshot to the future is it!

DaemonSeid · #2 05-21-2008, 03:38 PM

Initially, I read the title and was expecting porn...o well...AHEM

errrmmm...yeah... so...black holes...won't be a problem in our puny lifetime

cheerfulgreek · #3 05-21-2008, 06:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaemonSeid

Initially, I read the title and was expecting porn...o well...AHEM

omg!! lol lol lol lol

I guess it depends on how you want to look at it.

cheerfulgreek · #4 05-21-2008, 06:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tom Earp

Wow, I am impressed! So a Black Hole is just a sponge but on a bigger level!

It is not a slingshot to the future is it!

lol. I don't know Tom. I guess if you want to look at it that way. I always thought sponges did more of an absorbing thing, where as black holes routinely dine upon wayward stars and unsuspecting gas clouds in a different way. A sponge is a great comparisson though.

With black holes, as a cloud approaches it, it hardly ever falls straight in, like water absorbing into a sponge. A gas cloud is typically drawn into orbit before it spirals into the hole. When I took physics we had to learn a bunch of terms and one of them was "Differential Rotation". In this case, if the laws of physics apply to black holes which I'm guessing they do, the parts of the cloud that are closer to the black hole will orbit faster than the parts that are farther away.

Is it a slingshot to the future? I don't know. I've heard that they could be time warps. We would never know, unless we can develop some kind of machine that can withstand being ripped to shreads by its strong gravity.

Tom Earp · #5 05-21-2008, 05:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DSTCHAOS

hehe

Not as far as they can tell but how would they know that? That's food for thought. Hmmm.

True that!

But there are not ETs or UFOs either.