Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Black holes 'do not exist'
Nature.com ^ | 31 March 2005 | Philip Ball

Posted on 04/05/2005 10:43:19 AM PDT by ShadowAce

Black holes are staples of science fiction and many think astronomers have observed them indirectly. But according to a physicist at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, these awesome breaches in space-time do not and indeed cannot exist.

Over the past few years, observations of the motions of galaxies have shown that some 70% the Universe seems to be composed of a strange 'dark energy' that is driving the Universe's accelerating expansion.

George Chapline thinks that the collapse of the massive stars, which was long believed to generate black holes, actually leads to the formation of stars that contain dark energy. "It's a near certainty that black holes don't exist," he claims.

Black holes are one of the most celebrated predictions of Einstein's general theory of relativity, which explains gravity as the warping of space-time caused by massive objects. The theory suggests that a sufficiently massive star, when it dies, will collapse under its own gravity to a single point.

But Einstein didn't believe in black holes, Chapline argues. "Unfortunately", he adds, "he couldn't articulate why." At the root of the problem is the other revolutionary theory of twentieth-century physics, which Einstein also helped to formulate: quantum mechanics.

In general relativity, there is no such thing as a 'universal time' that makes clocks tick at the same rate everywhere. Instead, gravity makes clocks run at different rates in different places. But quantum mechanics, which describes physical phenomena at infinitesimally small scales, is meaningful only if time is universal; if not, its equations make no sense.

This problem is particularly pressing at the boundary, or event horizon, of a black hole. To a far-off observer, time seems to stand still here. A spacecraft falling into a black hole would seem, to someone watching it from afar, to be stuck forever at the event horizon, although the astronauts in the spacecraft would feel as if they were continuing to fall. "General relativity predicts that nothing happens at the event horizon," says Chapline.

Quantum transitions

However, as long ago as 1975 quantum physicists argued that strange things do happen at an event horizon: matter governed by quantum laws becomes hypersensitive to slight disturbances. "The result was quickly forgotten," says Chapline, "because it didn't agree with the prediction of general relativity. But actually, it was absolutely correct."

This strange behaviour, he says, is the signature of a 'quantum phase transition' of space-time. Chapline argues that a star doesn't simply collapse to form a black hole; instead, the space-time inside it becomes filled with dark energy and this has some intriguing gravitational effects.

Outside the 'surface' of a dark-energy star, it behaves much like a black hole, producing a strong gravitational tug. But inside, the 'negative' gravity of dark energy may cause matter to bounce back out again.

If the dark-energy star is big enough, Chapline predicts, any electrons bounced out will have been converted to positrons, which then annihilate other electrons in a burst of high-energy radiation. Chapline says that this could explain the radiation observed from the centre of our galaxy, previously interpreted as the signature of a huge black hole.

He also thinks that the Universe could be filled with 'primordial' dark-energy stars. These are formed not by stellar collapse but by fluctuations of space-time itself, like blobs of liquid condensing spontaneously out of a cooling gas. These, he suggests, could be stuff that has the same gravitational effect as normal matter, but cannot be seen: the elusive substance known as dark matter.


TOPICS: Technical
KEYWORDS: blackholes; science
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-29 next last

1 posted on 04/05/2005 10:43:19 AM PDT by ShadowAce
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: PatrickHenry; RadioAstronomer; Physicist

Science ping


2 posted on 04/05/2005 10:43:46 AM PDT by ShadowAce (Linux -- The Ultimate Windows Service Pack)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Lil'freeper

Ping


3 posted on 04/05/2005 10:44:30 AM PDT by big'ol_freeper ("Freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the right to do what we ought." Pope JPII)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ShadowAce

I disagree. Black holes do exist. Just look in Michael Schiavo's eyes.


4 posted on 04/05/2005 10:44:36 AM PDT by Fiat volvntas tva (I believe in order that I may understand. (St. Augustine))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ShadowAce

Sounds like someone is picking a fight with the guy in a wheelchair...only in this case, the guy is Stephen Hawking. When in doubt, bet on Hawking.


5 posted on 04/05/2005 10:47:02 AM PDT by peyton randolph (Warning! It is illegal to fatwah a camel in all 50 states)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ShadowAce

6 posted on 04/05/2005 10:47:14 AM PDT by billorites (freepo ergo sum)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ShadowAce

It has always seemed to me that humans (being a part of the universe) cannot understand the whole. It's like try to catch a shadow.


7 posted on 04/05/2005 10:49:18 AM PDT by zencat (The universe is not what it appears, nor is it something else.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ShadowAce

This is wrong.

Dark energy is an expansive, repulsory effect. This would negate the effects of a collapsing star if there was some sort of "transition"


8 posted on 04/05/2005 10:50:00 AM PDT by Crazieman (Islam. Religion of peace, and they'll kill you to prove it.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ShadowAce

What if Einstein had math anxiety? Would black holes be discovered earlier?


9 posted on 04/05/2005 10:50:27 AM PDT by lilylangtree (Veni, Vidi, Vici)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ShadowAce

It's black and it looks like a hole. I guess it's a black hole.

10 posted on 04/05/2005 10:50:36 AM PDT by billorites (freepo ergo sum)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ShadowAce

I am so glad to hear this because I have been VERY worried. <;9//>


11 posted on 04/05/2005 10:52:48 AM PDT by Ditter
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ShadowAce
Posted a few weeks ago...

Black holes 'do not exist'

12 posted on 04/05/2005 10:53:45 AM PDT by Michael_Michaelangelo (The best theory is not ipso facto a good theory. Lots of links on my homepage...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: peyton randolph

"When in doubt, bet on Hawking."

Except that Hawking lost his last bet (3rd paragraph of linked article below):

http://www.nature.com/news/2004/040712/full/040712-12.html


13 posted on 04/05/2005 10:55:50 AM PDT by BlackRazor
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: Michael_Michaelangelo

Oops. Sorry. The title search function seems to be a little, uh, unreliable.


14 posted on 04/05/2005 10:56:31 AM PDT by ShadowAce (Linux -- The Ultimate Windows Service Pack)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: ShadowAce
In general relativity, there is no such thing as a 'universal time' that makes clocks tick at the same rate everywhere. Instead, gravity makes clocks run at different rates in different places. But quantum mechanics, which describes physical phenomena at infinitesimally small scales, is meaningful only if time is universal; if not, its equations make no sense.

I disagree. Different velocities with respect to other inertial frames makes clocks appear to run at different rates when viewed from different reference frames. Location has nothing to do with it, except when the location places one frame under an acceleration with respect to another. Then it is not the location, per se, but the proximity to some other influence.

If the author screwed this up so badly, can we really trust his conclusions?
15 posted on 04/05/2005 10:57:17 AM PDT by NonLinear ("If not instantaneous, then extraordinarily fast" - Galileo re. speed of light. circa 1600)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: RhoTheta

"My head hurts" ping.


16 posted on 04/05/2005 10:57:55 AM PDT by Egon (Liberals: The only group of people they don't want to kill are those that kill others.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ShadowAce
Black holes are staples of science fiction...

...Poppycock! I saw one run for the presidency not a year ago, and his name was Rev. Al Sharpton.

17 posted on 04/05/2005 10:58:40 AM PDT by meandog (bellum nec timendum nec provacandum)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ShadowAce

there is a bad sex joke in here somewhere.........ahhh never mind


18 posted on 04/05/2005 11:04:45 AM PDT by aft_lizard (This space waiting for a post election epiphany)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: ShadowAce

Next thing you know they'll be telling us that manmade global warming doesn't exist (sarcasm ended).


19 posted on 04/05/2005 11:05:54 AM PDT by Inwoodian
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: ShadowAce
I don't know why, but I just love this stuff. The space time continuum stuff and the infinite event horizon without black holes makes Star Trek much more plausible.
20 posted on 04/05/2005 11:08:56 AM PDT by Sleeping Freeper
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-29 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson