EAAE Catch A Star Black Holes

Black holes, how can we

detect them?

Proyect done by: Alba Covelo , Roy Casero Soler, Alejandro Prieto Juaneda
and Andrés Gento Blanco

School: IES Plurilingüe Eusebio da Guarda

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EAAE Catch A Star Black Holes

Explanation of black holes

As a simple way to define a black hole, it is any astronomical body whose escape velocity exceed
the speed of light, due to it’s huge gravitational force, which comes from it’s great density. The first
definition of a black hole was sujested by John Michell and Pierre-Simon in the Philosophical
Transactions of the Royal Society (1784), as they say that it could exist a body where the density
was high enough to attract any light it could posibly emmit. At that time, they weren’t refering to
what we know today as a black hole, but, indirectly, they gave rise to the idea of it.

As time passed, the speculations of such astronomical body dissapeared when the wave theory of
light was developed, thinking no calculation on gravitation could cause any modification on the
propagation of light ; nevertheless, the possibility of this black gigants to exist ressurrected the
momment the General Relativity had taken place, a theory in which light is submited to gravity.
Taking into consideration the theories of relativity, the black holes were defined as the region of
space-time in which the gravitational potential exceeds the square of the speed of light.

With the theories of relativity on board, we can understand the macroscopic universe as the fabric of
space-time, stablishing a connection between space and time, and the light as a particle and a wave
that has a non-variable velocity that can’t be overwhelmed. Therefore, any existing body will keep
moving forward in time no matter what, and can’t go faster than the speed of light; this is
graphically represented as a light cone. In picture 1, a ray of light is emmited at a given point of
space , assuming c=1 , the light moves 1 unit of time per 1 unit of space, making diagonal lines
with the space-time graphic, taking all possible directions where this ray of light can go, we can
observe at picture 2, that an inverted cone appears above the hypersurface of the present time, and
another one underneath it. The space inside the cones are all the possible paths a particle will go or
had been, being the future possibilities the upward cone, the past ones the downward cone and the
point where both converge, the present. As the particle can’t go faster than the speed of light, it’s
possible ways to move through space-time are limited by the interior of the cones, working in the
frame of advancing forward in time as progressing up in the cone, and moving through the space as
going right or left. Furthermore, the General Relativity explains how we understand gravity as a
curvature of the space-time produced by a body with mass, hence with density, modifying the
directions of the light cone, altering the time and the space, dilating or contracting it depending on
the observer and the specific curvature, which is directly proportional to the density of the
astronomical body or bodies that produced it. It can be seen as the bed’s mattress, if you put an
object with little mass on the mattress, it won’t be very affected, but if you place a big one, it cave
in the mattress.

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ORBITS OF THINGS XD

In the modification of the space-time caused by an object, any moving particle passing close enough
to the astonomical body to be affected by the curvature will have the trayectory modified,
depending on the speed of the particle and the gravitational force created by the stellar body, that we
are going to picture, for example, that it is the Sun, the most possibles trayectories, along the
particles that directly fall into the Sun, will be the ones seen in picture 3: In one part we have the
particle a, which it has enough speed to overcome the attraction of the Sun, consequently, the
trayectory of this particle will be modified, but it still be moving through the space without being
capture by the Sun; in other hand, we have the particles C and e, in this two particles, their speed is
highly enough to avoid falling into the Sun, even so they are not enough faster to free themselves
from the gravitatory well of the Sun, rotating around it and creating what is called an orbit.

For the particles C and e to scape the gravitational attraction of the Sun, they would need another
force to increase their speed enough to take the trayectory of the particle a; if this happens, the
momment in which this particles liberates from the Sun, will be the equal to the time they have
reached the escape velocity

ESCAPE VELOCITY

In all stellar object, the gravity will attract the matter to the centre , but there is a possibility which if
curtain mobile moves faster than it is attracted in account
of the gravitational force, in that case, it will escape from
the gravity camp of the planet. This exact speed an object

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needs to be traveling to break free of a celestial body's gravity well and leave it without further
propulsion is denominated escape velocity:

2 GM
v s=
√ r

Vs is the velocity needed for an object to escape from the gravity camp of a planet, G is the
Nm 2
universal gravity constant G=6,67×1011 , M is the mass of the object and r is the radius.
kg 2
In the Earth the number of the velocity module is 11,2 km/s. If, instead, that object was on a planet
with the same mass as Earth but half the diameter, the escape velocity would be 15.8 km/s.

In the hypothetical case the escape velocity is precisely the same as the speed of light, there is not a
particle capable to liberate itself from being attracted to the stellar object, this happens when the
celestial body we describe is a black hole. To settle on the characteristics of the object to produce
this, and assuming it only has mass without rotation or charge, we utilize the Schwarzschild radius

SCHWARZSICHILD RADIUS

This is, thecnically, the distance between the singularity and the event horizon; the singularity is an
instant at the epicenter of the black hole, where all the mass is compacted, and the event horizont is
the point where the force of gravity prevents any particle to escape from this massive bodies. In the
hypothetical situation an estellar body reaches this lenght, it will be converted into a black hole,
where any particle (even light) won’t be able to flee from the gravitational force once it crosses this
radius. Where c is the light speed, the Schwarzschild radius, Rg, measures :

Rg = 2GM/c2.

The Schwarzschild radius for our sun is 3 km, it means that if the sun has a 3km radius with the
same mass, it would be a black hole; for the Earth, the volume would be more likely a pea size.
With this the general funcionating of a black hole can be more knwoledgeable.

HOW DOES A BLACK HOLE FUCKING WORKS

The black holes are fascinating astronimical

bodies where the General Relativity formulas
are taken to their limit.

Within the framework of a black hole ubicated

at a given point of space where certain particle
or body finds itself at a specific distance to start
getting attracted by the gravitational force of the

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massive body, represented in the picture 4: the light cone pictures the particle and its possible paths,
the event horizon as the borders of the cilinder and the singularity as the zigzagging line in the
center of the cilinder. The particle comence the route into the singularity at the most distant light
cone from the event horizon, at this point the particle would be moving though time in a vertical
line if it mantains the repose in the space, safe from falling into the clack hole; the moment it moves
towards the black hole the light cone would start to curve, and staying in repose would mean to go
in a diagonal trayectory, which concludes into the singularity, as we can observe in the second and
third light cone (counting from right to left) . However, we can also see that the particle could still
mantain itself away from entering falling into the blackhole if it moves in the space, creating a new
trayectory, represented as the arrow from the third light cone. In the circumstance the particle still
goes into the singularity, at a certain moment, the speed needed to escape the gravitational well
would be higher than the speed of light, the spot in the space where the particle turns from
technically free into condemned to converge in the singularity, is called event horizon, represented
in the fourth light cone with its possible paths, only able to converge. Subsequently, there are
represented other four light cones of particles already in the blackhole, with their light cones so
incliningm due to the curved plane of space-tune they are positioned, that advancing through time
becomes what initially was moving left or right, and moving through the space becomes what at the
start was advancing through time; we can understand for this reason why the singularity is
considered a moment, because if we keep moving through time or space there will be an inevitable
instant where the particle collapse into the singularity.

Observing the lenght to archieve one unit of time from the first light cone in comparation to the
consecutivetly, we can undesrtand how for different bodies, for example astronauts, the most distant
one will see the other one fall more and more slowly as it comes closer to the event horizon, as for
that one the times need to advance more to get one unit of time of the other; the moment the
astronaut falling into the black hole archieves the event horizon, the observer outside the black hole
will only see an static image of the astronaut inside the black astonomical body; due to the fact that
the photons reflecting on the astronaut and creating his image won’t be able to return and form it,
because they are also being absorved by the black hole

This is the basic explanation of how a black hole with only mass functions, but there could be other
types of black holes, more explained in the No-Hair Theorem.

NO-HAIR THEOREM

The no-hair theorem declares the perceptibles characteristics of a black hole, which are only three:
the mass, the electrical charge and the angular momentum. This theorem is a consequence of the
general relativity, so it becomes widely accepted; the name comes from as an allegory, picturing the
black hole as abald head with other little features.

The basic property of this astronomical bodies is the mass, without it there is no chance of existing
for this huge devoring beasts, the other two qualities alterates how the black hole will act in the
universe. Depending on the active characteristics , there will be presented four types of black holes.

The ones with electrical charge, negative or positive, will start attracting any other particle with the
opposite charge, this is explained because the electromagnetic interaction is hugely stronger
compared with the gravitational interaction, until the charges neutralize each other, converting the
black hole into one without electrical charge, but mantaining all the other properties equal.

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EAAE Catch A Star Black Holes

Mathematically, we still need to consider the electrical charge into the possible existance of the
black hole.

The Schwarzschild black hole, with only mass is the most simple, how it works has been explained
in the point ´´how does a black hole works`` , it is static and spherically simetrically; the Reissner-
Nordström black hole has mass, electrical charge, it is static and spherically simetric; the Kerr-
Newman black hole depends on the mass, electrical charge and angular momentum, it is stationary
and axisymmetric; and the Kerr black hole only posses mass and angular momentum, it is
stationary and axisymmetric.

Taking account of this properties, the differents solutions to form a black hole in equilibrim as a
final state permit us to obtain a new formula to represent the distance where the event horizon is
2 2 2
located at: r=M + √ M −Q −a

From this formula we can observe that the parameter of the black hole are restrasined by the value
of each feature, the following limit must be satisfied by: Q2+ a2≤M 2 .

When this regulation is violated, the black hole would only have a lonely and naked singularity
represented in the plane of space as an asymptotic line. In the real universe, such odd things should
not exist. However, this still explains the different and existing types of black holes in the real
universe.

KERR BLACK HOLE

As it was explained before, the black holes with electrical charge woulrd be neutralized in the real
universe, and the most simple black hole with only mass was the basis of how this astronomical
bodies works, however, if we add angular momentum, we introduce, not only more parts to the
anatomy of the black hole, but more ways to affect the space-time around this celestial body?

HOW DOES A BLACK HOLE BE BORN?

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3..When a star burns through the last of its

fuel (all the hydrogen of its nucleus is
fusioned in helium) , the object may collapse,
or fall under itself. For smaller stars (those up
to about 3 times the sun's mass), the new core
will become a star or a white dwarf star . But
when a bigger star collapses, it continues to
compress and creates a stellar black hole.
Black holes formed by the collapse of
individual stars are relatively small, but
incredibly dense. one among these objects
packs quite 3 times the mass of the sun into
the diameter of a city. This results in a crazy
amount of gravitational attraction pulling on
objects round the object. Stellar black holes
then consume the dust and gas from their surrounding
galaxies, which keeps them growing in size.
According the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for
Astrophysics, "the Milky Way contains a couple
of hundred million" stellar black holes.
There also are supermassive black holes. These
enormous black holes are millions or maybe billions of
times as massive as the sun, but are about an
equivalent size in diameter. Such black holes are
thought to lie at the middle of just about every galaxy and their gravity affect all of the objects of
the galaxy, including the Milky Way (Sagitario A) .
Scientists aren't certain how such large black holes spawn. Once these giants have formed, they
gather mass from the dust and gas around them, material that's plentiful within the center of
galaxies, allowing them to grow to even more enormous sizes.
Supermassive black holes could also be the results of hundreds or thousands of small black holes
that merge together. an alternative choice is that enormous gas clouds could even be responsible,
collapsing together and rapidly accreting mass. a 3rd option is that the collapse of a stellar cluster, a
gaggle of stars all falling together. Fourth, supermassive black holes could arise from large clusters
of dark matter. this is a substance that we are able to observe through its gravitational effect on
other objects; however, we don't know what dark matter is composed of because it doesn't emit
light and can't be directly observed.

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There are also intermediate ones. Before they were discovered, scientist thought that they didn’t
exist but in 2014 astronomers found an intermediate blak holes in an espiral galaxy. They have
between 80-130 solar masses.

HOW A BLACK HOLE CAN BE OBSERVED?

The Black holes attract photons to the centre (singularity) and the others are expeled so far. This
makes a black hole invisible, but there are some methods. With a powerful telescope you could
appreciate how a lot of stars and other bodies revolving around “nothing”, but there is another
method to discover black holes, this is studying the orbits of the stars, for example to discover
Sagitario A, the black hole that is in the centre of the Milky Way, many scientist studied the speed
of different stars. 4S2 was one of the stars that they saw during 10 years and astronomers calculate
that it spends 16 years to go round the black hole, and on the other hand the sun spends between 5
225-250 million years.

HOW THE BLACK HOLES DIE?

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WHAT ARE GRAVITY WAVES?

WHAT IS AN INTERFEROMETER?

EXPERIMENT

https://youtu.be/OuxLo-lrOss

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/336056151/figure/fig2/AS:807222447726592@15694682
37037/Space-time-is-separated-into-regions-called-space-like-where-causality-does-not-apply.png

https://media.sciencephoto.com/image/r9800254/800wm

https://www.qrg.northwestern.edu/projects/vss/docs/space-environment/2-whats-escape-
velocity.html

2 https://physicsworld.com/a/black-hole-is-hairless-reveals-analysis-of-gravitational-
waves/#:~:text=The%20no%2Dhair%20theorem%20is,head%20with%20few%20defining
%20features.

https://www.space.com/15421-black-holes-facts-formation-discovery-sdcmp.html

300.000km/s

https://billadamsphd.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Space-time.jpg

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4https://earthsky.org/space/star-s2-s0-2-single-milky-way-monster-black-hole
5https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/milky-way-rotation#:~:text=At%20our%20sun's
%20distance%20from,the%20center%20of%20the%20galaxy.

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