Every black hole may hold a hidden universe

New Scientist ^ | July 23, 2010 | Anil Ananthaswamy

[decimon]

WE COULD be living inside a black hole. This head-spinning idea is one cosmologist's conclusion based on a modification of Einstein's equations of general relativity that changes our picture of what happens at the core of a black hole.

In an analysis of the motion of particles entering a black hole, published in March, Nikodem Poplawski of Indiana University in Bloomington showed that inside each black hole there could exist another universe (Physics Letters B, DOI: 10.1016/j.physletb.2010.03.029). "Maybe the huge black holes at the centre of the Milky Way and other galaxies are bridges to different universes," Poplawski says. If that is correct - and it's a big "if" - there is nothing to rule out our universe itself being inside a black hole.

In Einstein's general relativity (GR), the insides of black holes are "singularities" - regions where the density of matter reaches infinity. Whether the singularity is an actual point of infinite density or just a mathematical inadequacy of GR is unclear, as the equations of GR break down inside black holes. Either way, the modified version of Einstein's equations used by Poplawski does away with the singularity altogether.

[decimon]

Singular sensation ping.

[bioqubit]

it would sure explain the times in which we live.

[highlander_UW]

That’s racist!

[MaryFromMichigan]

Space ping.

[JimRed]

"Maybe the huge black holes at the centre of the Milky Way and other galaxies are bridges to different universes," Poplawski says.

That's a pretty big MAYBE!

[goseminoles]

Once you go black, you never go back!

[Dayman]

I’m enraptured by the vastness of space and this sort of stuff. It makes me wish I had a TARDIS.

[Seruzawa]

Shouldn’t this sort of stuff, like Multi-universe, String Theory and Big-Bang, be in the religion section?

[decimon]

"Maybe the huge black holes at the centre of the Milky Way and other galaxies are bridges to different universes," Poplawski says.

That's a pretty big MAYBE!

Big galaxy, big maybe. ;-)

[umgud]

Just remember, it always gets darkest........... just before the lights go totally out.

[Dallas59]

Pinging the NAACP....

[Le Chien Rouge]

Maybe our galaxy is just one of many marbles that some alien kid has stored in some sack.

[P.O.E.]

Doctorin' the Tardis

[DuncanWaring]

Whether the singularity is an actual point of infinite density or just a mathematical inadequacy of GR is unclear, as the equations of GR break down inside black holes.

[AlexW]

One thing is for sure...The USSA is really deep into a black hole.

[DuncanWaring]

Heard another theory once that a black hole in this universe is the other side of a quasar in another universe, and the converse.

[Mr. K]

I know mine does!

[Matchett-PI]

Actually, I’m sick of black holes.