PIY: PROJECT IT YOURSELF

BLACK HOLES
APRIL 23, 2019

OVERVIEW

The simplest picture of a black hole is that of a

system whose gravity is so strong that nothing,
not even light, can escape from it. Because the
escape velocity is measured from the surface of
an object, it becomes higher if a body contracts
and becomes more dense. If the object were to
become sufficiently dense, the escape velocity
could therefore exceed the speed of light, and
light itself would be unable to escape.
According to the standard definition, the event
horizon of a black hole is the surface formed by
the points of no return.

A THOUGHT EXPERIMENT
Imagine someone falls into a black hole, and, while falling, she flashes a light signal to us every
time her watch hand ticks. Observing from a safe distance outside the black hole, we would
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find the times between the
arrival of successive light
signals to grow larger without
limit, because it takes longer for
the light to escape the black hole's
gravitational potential well the
closer to the event horizon the
light is emitted. That is, it would
appear to us that time were
slowing down for the falling
person as she approached the
event horizon. The ticking of her
watch (and every other process as well) would seem to go ever more slowly as she approached
ever more closely to the event horizon. We would never actually see the light signals she emits
when she crosses the event horizon; instead, she would seem to be eternally “frozen” just above
the horizon.

PROPERTIES
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Most black holes form from the remnants of a

large star that dies in a supernova explosion. As
the surface of the star nears an imaginary surface
called the "event horizon", time on the star slows
relative to the time kept by observers far away.
Although the basic formation process is
understood, one perennial mystery in the science
of black holes is that they appear to exist on two
radically different size scales.

On the one end, there are the countless black holes that are the remnants of massive stars. On
the other end of the size spectrum are the giants known as "supermassive" black holes, which
are millions, if not billions, of times as massive as the Sun. Astronomers believe that supermassive
black holes lie at the center of virtually all large galaxies, even our own Milky Way. Historically,
astronomers have long believed that no mid-sized black holes exist. However, recent evidence
from Chandra, XMM-Newton and Hubble strengthens the case that mid-size black holes do exist.

OBSERVATIONS & RESEARCH

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By their very nature, black holes do not directly
emit any electromagnetic radiation other than
the hypothetical Hawking radiation, so
astrophysicists searching for black holes must
generally rely on indirect observations. On 10 April
2019 an image was released of a black hole, which
is seen in magnified fashion because the light paths
near the event horizon are highly bent. The dark
shadow in the middle results from light paths
absorbed by the black hole. The image is in false
color, as the detected light halo in this image is not
in the visible spectrum, but radio waves.

The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), run by MIT's

Haystack Observatory, is an active program that directly observes the immediate environment of
the event horizon of black holes, such as the black hole at the centre of the Milky Way. In April
2017, EHT began observation of the black hole in the center of Messier 87. In all, eight radio
observatories on six mountains and four continents observed the galaxy in Virgo on and off for
10 days in April 2017 to provide the data yielding the image two years later in April 2019. After 2
years of data processing, EHT released the first direct image of a black hole, specifically the
supermassive black hole that lies in the center of the aforementioned galaxy. What is visible is
not the black hole, which shows as black; gases at the edge, the event horizon, show as orange
or red, defining the black hole.

CONCLUSION

Even though scientists are still trying to find information on black holes, what we know so far has
given us opportunity to learn and research. While researching black holes I learned that they
aren’t quite as monstrous as people think. I also learned about the line of singularity and the
horizon of a black hole. Overall, I learned a lot about black holes from this project, and as
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scientists continue to research, I will learn more. Black holes are full of wonder and mystery.
They are also somewhat interesting with their characteristics. Still, scientists continuously
research these amazing “space creatures” even though they are invisible. Would you consider to
be one of these scientists that research black holes? Or would you consider to go in space and
take a risk to get a closer look at black holes? There are many conclusions to everything but there
may never be a conclusion to a black hole.

UNANSWERED QUESTIONS

● What happens within the Event Horizon?

● At what point in a black hole’s anatomy does conventional physics break
down?
● Are black holes in fact portals to other points in space?
● Do black holes have a singularity? What would it look like?
● If hypothetical white holes exist, can we map them to corresponding black
holes?
● How far can you travel into a supermassive black hole without being crushed
by tidal forces?
● How many spatial dimensions do black holes exist in?
● How is time affected within the Event Horizon?
● Can black holes with stable, orbiting planets sustain life, or would the radiation
sterilize the planets?
● How do black holes affect dark matter and dark energy, and vice versa?
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