Credit: Andrew Hamilton; NSF
Over the Edge?
When you're poised on the brink, look down over the ultimate
edge of the swirling chaos near an accreting black hole. Any brave (or foolhardy?) astronaut
who decided to wander too close would fall through its event horizon and
pass out of our Universe entire. The image above shows a physical simulation of the view of some unfortunate wayfarer floating freely
under the influence of gravity at the black hole's
event horizon (a boundary designed to keep information from us).
What she encounters next depends on the nature of the black hole:
whether the black hole is spinning, or electrically charged, or both. Try as she might, she's carried inward
as spacetime falls into the black hole at the
speed of light or greater. Astrophysicists are unsure exactly what her fate will: maybe
spaghettified by the singularity which may lurk at the heart of the black hole;
or burnt up by
a firewall of
radiation which may or may not exist just inside the event horizon. Perhaps she'd be able to escape through a
wormhole,
reappearing somewhere else in the spacetime of our Universe, or perhaps in some other, saner neighbor in the
Multiverse.
Published: October 7, 2013
<
HEA Dictionary ● Archive
● Search HEAPOW
● Other Languages
● HEAPOW on Facebook
● Download all Images
● Education ● HEAD
>
Each week the HEASARC
brings you new, exciting and beautiful images from X-ray and Gamma ray
astronomy. Check back each week and be sure to check out the HEAPOW archive!
Page Author: Dr. Michael F. Corcoran
Last modified Monday, 26-Feb-2024 17:20:25 EST