LOS ANGELES — Insights into a black hole paradox may come from a down-to-Earth source. Superconductors, materials through which electrons can move without freely without resistance, may share some of the physics of black holes, physicist Sreenath Kizhakkumpurath Manikandan of the University of Rochester in New York reported March 7 at a meeting of the American Physical Society. The analogy between the two objects could help scientists understand what happens to information that gets swallowed up in a black hole’s abyss. When a black hole gobbles up particles, information about the particles’ properties is seemingly trapped inside. According to quantum mechanics, such information cannot be destroyed. Physicist Stephen Hawking determined in 1974 that black holes slowly evaporate over time, emitting what’s known as Hawking radiation before eventually disappearing. That fact implies a conundrum known as the black hole information paradox (SN: 5/31/14, p. 16): … [Read more...] about Superconductors may shed light on the black hole information paradox
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Black Hole Sun: Scientists Theorize an Object That’s Part Neutron Star, Part Black Hole
When a massive star explodes, one of two things happens. Its core compacts into a space no bigger than a city, creating an ultra-dense object called a neutron star, or it or collapses entirely into a black hole from which nothing can escape.The star's fate seemed like and either-or proposition. But maybe that's wrong, according to a group of Italian researchers who just published a Physical Review Letters paper. You can thank the weird world of quantum physics. Advertisement - Continue Reading Below Neutron stars and black holes play by the rules of Einsteinian physics. For the most part they obey the laws of gravity it sets forth through the interactions of normal particles and matter—a neutron star, for instance, is called that because it's a thick plasma soup of neutron-based matter. But within each particle are subparticles called quarks, which is where things get weird at the subatomic level. Say you had a star that was just more than three times the mass of our sun. Here, … [Read more...] about Black Hole Sun: Scientists Theorize an Object That’s Part Neutron Star, Part Black Hole
Biggest Black Holes May Grow Faster Than Host Galaxies
Some of the most monstrous black holes in the universe are growing faster than their host galaxies, new research suggests. Supermassive black holes are believed to exist at the centers of most, if not all, large galaxies, where they feed on surrounding gas, dust and other material. Two new studies suggest that these massive black holes are much bigger than expected based on the rate at which surrounding stars are forming, the researchers said. "We are trying to reconstruct a race that started billions of years ago," Guang Yang, a researcher at Penn State and lead author of one of the studies, said in a statement. "We are using extraordinary data taken from different telescopes to figure out how this cosmic competition unfolded." [Images: Black Holes of the Universe] Using data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and other telescopes, Yang's study examined the rate at which black holes grow in galaxies located 4.3 billion to 12.2 billion light-years from Earth. The researchers … [Read more...] about Biggest Black Holes May Grow Faster Than Host Galaxies
Einstein’s Theory of Gravity Is About to Get a Test From a Star Passing by Supermassive Black Hole
S. SAKAI/A.GHEZ/W. M. KECK OBSERVATORY/ UCLA GALACTIC CENTER GROUP There is a small group of stars that orbit dangerously close to the supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy, Sagittarius A*. These S-stars, as they are called, get so close to the maw at the center of the Milky Way that the immense gravity slings them at velocities around 2.5 percent the speed of light, or almost 17 million miles per hour (27 million km/h). Advertisement - Continue Reading Below One of these stars, S0-2, will make its closest approach to the black hole at the center of our galaxy this spring. Sagittarius A*—the most massive object in the galaxy with more than 4 million times the mass of the sun—will warp the star and tug at its light, which astronomers can measure from Earth, about 26,000 light-years away from the Galactic Center where the supermassive black hole reigns.Astronomers have been waiting for the star, known as Source 2 (S2 or S0-2), to make its close pass to … [Read more...] about Einstein’s Theory of Gravity Is About to Get a Test From a Star Passing by Supermassive Black Hole
Black Holes Shape Some Alien Planets’ Destinies
Monster black holes near the center of our Milky Way galaxy may have transformed "mini-Neptune" exoplanets into rocky super-Earths, new research shows. Supermassive black holes are thought to reside at the centers of most, if not all, large galaxies. They gobble up surrounding matter and, in turn, generate bright flares of X-ray and ultraviolet radiation. The new findings suggest that these powerful bursts could strip nearby exoplanets of their thick, gaseous atmosphere, leaving behind a bare, rocky core. These rocky bodies would likely be heavier than Earth, making them so-called super-Earths, according to a statement from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA). [The Strangest Black Holes in the Universe] "It's pretty wild to think of black holes shaping the evolutionary destiny of a planet, but that very well may be the case in the center of our galaxy," lead study author Howard Chen, a postdoctoral candidate in the Northwestern University Department of … [Read more...] about Black Holes Shape Some Alien Planets’ Destinies