Scientists can now study black holes as real objects. But are they really seeing the mysterious, featureless pits in space and time predicted by Einstein's theory? Or could these objects be something else? Learn more on NationalSpaceDay:
, following paths that may hold clues to the nature of the black hole itself.
for inferring the existence of the supermassive black hole in the heart of our Galaxy."We're still a long way from putting a complete picture together," she says,"but we're certainly getting more of the puzzle pieces in place."gravitational energy, a black hole is a ball of contradictions. It contains no matter, but, like a bowling ball, possesses mass and can spin. It has no surface, but has a size.
According to general relativity, these objects—eventually named black holes by famed theorist John Archibald Wheeler—should also exhibit a shocking sameness. In 1963, Roy Kerr, a mathematician from New Zealand, worked out how a spinning black hole of a given mass would warp and twist spacetime.
Now, with multiple ways to peer at black holes, scientists can start to test their understanding and look for surprises that could revolutionize physics."Even though it's very unlikely, it would be so amazingly important if we found that there was any deviation" from the predictions of general relativity, Carroll says."It's a very high-risk, high-reward question.
The famous image the team released 2 years ago, which resembles a fiery circus hoop, is more complicated than it looks. The bright ring emanates from hot gas, but the dark center is not the black hole itself. Rather it is a"shadow" cast by the black hole as its gravity distorts or"lenses" the light from the gas in front of it.
The mergers can probe the black holes in several ways, says Frank Ohme, a gravitational theorist and LIGO member at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics. Assuming the objects are classical black holes, researchers can calculate from general relativity how the chirplike gravitational wave signal from a merger should speed up, climax in a spike, and then ring down.
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