These mysterious objects are dark-energy stars, physicist claims.
Black holes may in fact be pockets of 'dark energy'.
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.
“It's a near certainty that black holes don't exist.”
George Chapline Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
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.
posted
That's REALLY interesting NonProphet! I would really like to see more of this conjecture from people who (judging by the very fact that they are near the top of their profession as free thinkers) are teetering on the edge of madness.
Posts: 430 | From: luxor | Registered: Apr 2008
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quote:Originally posted by ourluxor: That's REALLY interesting NonProphet! I would really like to see more of this conjecture from people who (judging by the very fact that they are near the top of their profession as free thinkers) are teetering on the edge of madness.
Where is his religion or lack thereof mentioned? I have no idea nor care if he is an atheist, believer or free thinker.
In fact, many Engineers and Scientists are religious. Technical people don't necessarily lack delusion especially if they acquired their belief system through childhood indoctrination.
Free your mind from Biblical or Quranic immorality and discover the awesome Universe.
'A Universe From Nothing' by Lawrence Krauss, AAI 2009
posted
There were only three posts in this thread, and you are the only one to mention religion! What on earth are you rabbiting about? Why would you write this into the "Religion" forum? I, for one, couldn't care less about black holes, or holes of any other colour for that matter! What possible difference can we make to them, or what control can we ever have over what difference they might make to us? Even reading this thread is a complete waste of time, never mind adding to it!
Posts: 430 | From: luxor | Registered: Apr 2008
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posted
Freethinker is another term for the non-religious, Idiot.
No one asked for your sarcastic ignorant remarks so go away miserable elderly bigot and worship your lily white Jesus. You must be cramming for the final exam(Judgement day is soon!). Posts: 644 | Registered: May 2010
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Thanks for showing your true colours, your name-calling is in a class of its own! Loved the "cramming" bit! Btw, no-one asked for your time wasting post either. If you could apply yourself to actually reading instead of scanning other peoples' words; you could have seen that I actually wrote "top of their profession as free thinkers". Nothing whatsoever to do with being religious or non-religious, the dead give away word being "profession" i.e. scientist.
Posts: 430 | From: luxor | Registered: Apr 2008
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