S4F: Black Holes (Don’t Really) Suck
By David Siegel Bernstein, PhD
A black hole walks into a bar and asks: where did everyone go?
There are a couple of lingering questions I avoided in my last S4F, Black Holes Suck (because of word limit, not love!), that when answered I hope will give you ideas for your fiction. First, do black holes last forever (no) and second can they be used for time travel (yes).
1. Black hole evaporation
Stephen Hawking (physicist, good guy, and science fiction aficionado) showed that black holes evaporate via what is known as Hawking radiation. Lucky guy—he discovered something with his name. What are the odds of that?
Anyway, Hawking radiation arises from virtual particles unable to annihilate each other near an event horizon. See I Have Virtually Nothing to Say about Zero-Point Energy for details virtual particles. When a virtual particle pair pops into existence near a black hole one of them gets caught in the event horizon and the other escapes. The particle which falls into the black hole has negative energy thereby reducing the mass of the black hole—evaporation. The smaller the black hole the quicker it loses its mass. Eventually a black hole vanishes in burst of gamma radiation because as it shrinks its temperature rises and you know how that goes: boom.
2. Time travel
Now for some fun: using a black hole for time travel. As I’ve written before in S4F, in principle, time travel is possible. However, it does mean stretching general relativity to its limits; which is okay, because isn’t that what good science fiction is all about?
A. Consider a rotating black hole. A singularity may be formed as a ring similar to a donut. A starship may dive through the ring and emerge in another time. This ringed type singularity is called a Kerr Singularity.
B. Consider a wormhole connecting two black holes residing in different times and places. I discuss this in more detail, along with how to build a TARDIS, in Do You Know the Time? Part III.
To avoid paradox in a time travel story read (hopefully re-read) Paradox Lost and Parallel Worlds.
Finally, take a moment to see the casting of Black Holes in movies and television at ASTR.
See you in time and space… and S4F
Comments: No Comments »
Authors: David Siegel Bernstein. Form: Column. Length: 500 words. Editor who accepted this story: Previous Editors.
Author Bio
Abandoned Towers Content: S4F: Black Holes (Don’t Really) Suck S4F: Black Holes Suck S4F: Can Anyone Intelligent Communicate with Me? Other Than My Earthling Friends. Part II S4F: Can Anyone Intelligent Communicate with Me? Other Than My Earthling Friends. S4F: Do You Know the Time? S4F: Do You Know the Time? Part II S4F: Do You Know the Time? Part III S4F: Fiction by the Numbers S4F: From Higgs to Holograms S4F: I Have Virtually Nothing to Say About Zero-Point Energy S4F: If You are Uncertain—Call a Quantum Mechanic for a Fix S4F: Infinity for Fun S4F: Infinity of Fun, Part II S4F: Invisibility, Science not Magic S4F: Meet David Siegel Bernstein – Forensic Statistician S4F: More or Less Human S4F: Much Ado About Nothing This Month S4F: Now Playing at the Opera—The Faster than Light Particle Experiment S4F: Paradox Found S4F: Paradox Lost S4F: Parallel Worlds S4F: Splicing Science from Fiction S4F: The End of Infinity (Infinity of Fun Part III) S4F: We Hold Universal Truths to Be Not Self-Evident S4F: What’s the Matter with Antimatter?
Is this you? Is the information on this page correct? Let us know if it isn't!
March 8th, 2012 at 6:43 pm
Interesting article!
Stealth is easier than cloaking, and we already have the technology.
March 30th, 2012 at 7:41 am
William you are absolutely correct. Invisibility (a descendant of Stealth) is not only easier to achieve, but a future topic. I thought I’d go over invisibility first to please those who enjoy Harry Potter, but want to write hard science fiction.
April 5th, 2012 at 5:39 am
Fascinating post. We are so much empty space and mostly water. Amazing to think how we can be beings of intelligence and creativity.