The Secrets of Black Holes _ Davidson Institute of Science Education

12.3.
2021 The Secrets of Black Holes | Davidson Institute of Science Education
The Secrets of Black Holes
h Guy Nir
c December 20, 2016
m 15 min Science Panorama
The fascinating phenomenon that was previously

considered purely theoretical but is now providing
ground-breaking data in many fields of physics
Appearing in a variety of science fiction stories and usually surrounded by an aura

of mystery, myths and surprising theories – black holes have engaged the
imagination since the idea of their existence arose in the 18th century. Here we
take a look at what actually creates a black hole, what effects are created near
black holes, what types of black holes exist in the universe, and what other
rumors, theories and myths revolve around them.
What is a black hole?

A black hole is an area in space where there is mass of stars concentrated in a
radius of a few kilometers. Since the mass of a black hole is so large and its
gravity so strong, anything that comes close enough to it falls into it, even light. All
the concentrated mass of the black hole falls into its center, called its gravitational
singularity; at this point there is infinite density. A few kilometers from the
singularity exists the “event horizon”, a mathematical boundary that marks the
“point of no return”, i.e. the point at which the speed needed to escape the
gravitational field of the black hole is greater than the speed of light. This point is
also the fundamental boundary; from here it is impossible to remove material,
light, or any kind of “information”. What falls through is lost forever, and we will
never know its fate. The event horizon represents the “surface” of the black hole,
https://davidson.weizmann.ac.il/en/online/sciencepanorama/secrets-black-holes 1/8
12.3.2021 The Secrets of Black Holes | Davidson Institute of Science Education
which is not actually physical or tangible. From the outside, the horizon appears
as a completely dark ball.
Even light is sucked into it. Simulation of a black hole | Source: Science Photo Library
The history of studying black holes

Using mechanics and Newtonian theory of gravitation, an “escape velocity” can be
calculated for each star with a known mass and radius, which is the lowest speed
that a planet must have in order to escape the gravitational attraction of another
planet.
At the end of the 18th century, philosopher Reverend John Michell and
mathematician Pierre-Simon Laplace at the same time, but separately proposed
the idea of a body so massive and dense that its escape velocity is greater than
the speed of light. At that time the notion was dismissed, because in Newton’s
Laws there was no explanation for why light would be affected at all by the gravity
of a star.
At the beginning of the 20th century, Einstein formulated his general theory of
relativity, which comprehensively explained the phenomenon of gravity
compared to that given by Newton in the 17th century. The theory of relativity
produced the same results as Newton's theory of gravity referring to a weak
gravity, and bodies moving relatively slowly compared to the speed of light. The
differences begin to appear only at high speeds and in very strong gravitational
fields.
Already in 1917 (two years after Einstein’s publication) physicist and astronomer
Karl Schwarzschild published a solution to the equations of relativity near a
massive and dense (compact) body. In his equations, there was a clearly visible
boundary beyond which light could not escape. According to the theory of
relativity, light and matter behave the same way in a gravitational field, which
supplied a more natural explanation for the existence of a black hole that was
capable of attracting light in the first place. The black hole was a good theoretical
demonstration of the situation where the theory of relativity behaves quite
differently from Newtonian gravity due to the strong gravitational fields that exist
near the event horizon.
Since then, theories have advanced to include rotating and charged black holes
and now even include a number of fascinating phenomena that occur in the
proximity of the black hole.
The effects of gravity

When you're far away from the black hole, there is no difference between its
gravity and that of a normal star. So if we would replace our sun with a black hole
of the same mass, the Earth would continue in its orbit without interference (the
lack of sunlight would bother us of course as living creatures who like light and
heat, and actually depend on them). The formidable gravitational force of a black
hole stems from its small size. The gravitational pull increases, as you get closer
to the concentrated mass in the center. Because of this and due to the fact that
the black hole can be the mass of a star, but with the radius of only a few
kilometers (instead of millions of kilometers), allows matter to get closer to the
black hole and be pulled by the very strong gravitational field.
The radius of the event horizon, called “Schwarzschild radius”, represents the
physical size of the black hole. But within a few Schwarzschild radii the strong
gravitational pull can already be felt, and a huge force is required to prevent
falling inside it. For a particle or a spacecraft that orbits the black hole, already at
a distance of just three Schwarzschild radii it will be impossible to find a stable
path to stop them from falling into the black hole. At a distance of 1.5
Schwarzschild radii, for example, the gravitational pull is so strong that light rays
move in a circular path, so if you were watching a black hole from this distance
you would be able see your head on the other side.
According to the theory of relativity, a massive body distorts the space and time
around it. A black hole is an extreme example. To an external observer, light
emitted proximal to the horizon appears redder (its frequency is decreased), and
radio pulses emitted at regular intervals will appear to be emitted in increasing
intervals as their source is closer to the event horizon. To an external observer, a
clock thrown into the black hole will show time slowing as the clock approaches
the horizon, and in fact from the outside it would look like the clock takes an
infinite amount of time to pass the event horizon. However, as it approaches the
horizon, light emitted from it will fade and appear redder, until we can’t measure
it, even at the lowest frequency of radio waves.
Light that comes from a source behind the black hole can circumvent it, because
gravity distorts light rays and diverts them. The black hole can serve as a lens that
concentrates the light of background stars. In this sense, it is not only possible to
see stars that are from the opposite side of the black hole, it is also possible in
certain situations to see the same planet reflected several times around the hole,
and even a full ring of light that is coming from one source where the light rays
surround all sides of the black hole.
In science fiction we often encounter black holes that are the key to a different
universe or gateway for traveling back in time. Beyond the strange phenomena
already mentioned, there are other ideas that are based on the theory of relativity
for the possibility of “wormholes” in such black holes. Of course these are only
theories that don’t really have any scientific basis, and anyway there seems to be
no way we could actually check if they are correct or not.
Absorbing its neighbors in. A black hole sucking the gas from a nearby star | Simulation: Science Photo Library
How are black holes formed?

How are black holes formed created and what causes a planet's entire mass to be
compressed into such a small radius? The answer lies in the gravity of massive
stars that manage to continually compress all the gas within the core of the star,
until the mass collapses to the size of the dot.
Stars produce a lot of heat and radiation during their lives, and the internal
pressure created at the core of the star prevents them from collapsing under
their own weight. When the nuclear fuel at the core of a star is depleted, the gas
collapses inwards in a violent process releasing matter and energy outwards in
vast quantities. If the star is considered sufficiently massive, this exploding
process is called a supernova. The gas remains from the previous star, yet there is
no longer a source of energy to help push against its own gravity, and so the star
collapses to a minimal size. If the mass remains large enough, the debris will
collapse into a neutron star, where all the electrons are united with the protons
and a core of neutrons is formed. If the mass of this core is too big even for the
repulsion between the neutrons, the star will collapse inwards. At this stage no
force known to science can resist the weight of the gas. The mass is concentrated
in one point, and a black hole is created.
Quantum Mechanics
When we think about the space between stars we imagine it as almost completely
empty. But in the world of quantum laws the vacuum is filled with pairs of
particles and anti-particles that appear and disappear at such minute intervals
that cannot be measured. If such a pair is created exactly at the event horizon,
one particle might fall into the hole and release the other particle, taking a small
amount of energy from the black hole. This phenomenon is called Hawking
radiation named after a physicist who first described it in the 70s of the 20th
century. This radiation is very weak for “ordinary” black holes with a mass of a
star, but a very small black hole may lose a large amount of energy as result of it.
Another point explained by quantum mechanics is the singularity at the center of

the black hole. According to the theory of relativity, no force can deal with the
collapse of matter under its own weight into such a small radius, and so there is
no choice but to accept the existence of a single point of almost size zero, in
which lies a huge mass with infinite density. Future success in connecting
quantum mechanics with relativity (aka quantum gravity) should give better
answers to the nature of this problematic point. Since these theories have not yet
been developed, no one really knows what is happening today at the center of
black holes.
Types of black holes

Apart from stellar black holes that have a mass equivalent to a few times that of
our sun, there are other types of black holes that can be important for our
understanding of the universe. A striking example are supermassive black holes,
with a mass of millions of suns that exist at the center of most galaxies. These
black holes feed on nearby gas and stars at the centers of galaxies, and
sometimes cause emission of very bright radio waves from the matter being
gradually compressed as it falls into the black hole. It is not known how these
massive black holes were created, even given the large amount of gas and stars
around them, since matter falling into a black hole tends to circle around it, like
water flowing down the drain, and therefore it would take a long time for this
amount of material to accumulate into one black hole. The measurements that
were made show a link between the size of the supermassive black hole at the
center of the galaxy and the number of stars within it, indicating a close
relationship between the formation of galaxies and the formation of black holes
at their center.
Another type of black hole that may exist is the micro black hole. High-energy
collisions between particles may lead to a sufficient density for creating a tiny
black hole. In theory there can also be black holes with a slightly larger mass,
similar to that of our moon, at the size of just a little under a millimeter. These
minuscule black holes would emit Hawking radiation, which would cause them to
lose=energy (and mass) and ultimately completely disappear. Meanwhile, it is
unknown whether such entities exist, how they are created, or what is their
impact on the formation of the universe. All of these are open questions in
current research.
Not clear if they exist. Simulation of creating a micro black hole in a particle accelerator | Photograph: Science Photo
Library
Observations of black holes

Black holes are exotic bodies that are naturally very difficult to see in space. They
do not emit light, which means the discovery of black holes and spotting them is
very difficult, and rely on indirect measurements.
In the 90s of last century, scientists from the University of California in Los
Angeles measured the movement of 90 stars at the center of our galaxy and
found they orbited a mass four million times greater than our Sun, with a radius
of around a thousandth of a light year. It is hard to imagine such a large amount

of mass in an area so small that is not centralized in a supermassive black hole. In
that same area in space there is also a strong source of radio waves, known as
Sagittarius A. Today it is assumed that radio waves are emitted from the gas
surrounding the black hole that heats up as it falls inwards.
Stellar black holes (with a mass that is equivalent to several sun masses) have
been discovered indirectly through X-ray observations. In binary systems where a
black hole or a neutron star and a normal star are moving around each other, the
heavier body vacuums the gas of the partner. Gas surrounds the black hole,
heating from friction as it turns around it and falls within it, reaching millions of
degrees and emitting strong X-radiation. Observations on the properties of such
systems may suggest whether the compact body is a neutron star or a black hole.
In the past year a LIGO experiment detected gravitational waves that apparently
were emitted due to a collision between two black holes, each about 300 times
heavier than our sun. The discovery itself is important mainly because it was the
first time these elusive gravitational waves were discovered, but it also suggests
(indirectly) the existence of black holes in the universe.
These discoveries have advanced the status of black holes from theoretically
interesting phenomena to astrophysical reality. Today, black holes are integral to
our understanding of the evolution of galaxies and the stellar life cycle. They
provide a platform for new theories of gravity and quantum mechanics and the
variety of phenomena surrounding them are promoting our knowledge of physics
in a variety of fields.

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12.3.

2021 The Secrets of Black Holes | Davidson Institute of Science Education

The Secrets of Black Holes

m 15 min Science Panorama

The fascinating phenomenon that was previously

Appearing in a variety of science fiction stories and usually surrounded by an aura

What is a black hole?

The history of studying black holes

The effects of gravity

How are black holes formed?

Another point explained by quantum mechanics is the singularity at the center of

Types of black holes

Observations of black holes

of around a thousandth of a light year. It is hard to imagine such a large amount

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