The Mystery of Black Holes Essay

The expanses of the universe provide us with immense beauty that only creative minds can fathom and conceptualize. And, there is no better way to describe this marvel than viewing the universe from the lenses and perspective of quantum mechanics and relativistic science advanced by great minds such as Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein among others. It is from the collation of the theories advanced by the works of the two scientists that we get to understand stranger but marvelous regions such as black holes hovering over the space horizon. While the concept of black holes appears fictitious, they are simply regions within the space-time horizon that exhibit the immense gravitational effect (Berry p.59). And, the result of this is the formation of a region that no particle or electromagnetic radiation can escape from its pull once inside it.

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Various theories have been advanced in explaining how black holes are formed. However, the most profound theory that predicts their formation to a high degree of accuracy is the general relativity theory. It stipulates that a black hole is formed when a huge mass deforms within the space-time horizon. And, the boundary of the region from which the warping of the horizon occurs is known as the event horizon. And, in this region, nothing can escape it. Hence, the name "black hole" due to the inability of particles or radiation to escape its gravitational pull (Foit et al., p.67). A perfect example of how this may happen is when massive stars approach the ultimate stage of their life cycle. And, when this happens, a difference in gravitation force pulling the star in and nuclear forces pushing the star outwards occur. Under normal circumstances, the forces should balance out but when the star is in its dying stages, the gravitational force compresses the massive star thus leading to its collapse under the impact of its weight. And, with the lack of repulsive force within the collapsed star, any object that passes near it is swallowed in the region. And, with high gravitational force within that region, a black hole is formed such that nothing can escape its confines when swallowed.

Although the region of the event horizon has a profound effect on the ultimate fate of objects that cross it, it is difficult to detect any local changes in its appearance. Therefore, the black hole thus acts more as a black body because of its inability to reflect light. While this is the case, quantum theory within the confines of the space-time curvature predicts the emission of Hawking radiation from the event horizons. And, this radiation shares similar spectrum as black bodies with temperatures that have inverse relations to their masses (Berry p.63). Being in the order of billionths of Kelvin scale, it is impractical to observe this form of radiation or temperature. And, this call for other ways to detect or observe black holes. There are two ways that astronomers and physicists use in the detection of black holes. They include the observation of matter that is near black holes. For instance, when a star passes near a black hole and is swallowed, an event horizon is formed. And, this is observable and detectable by measuring or calculating the amount of x-ray radiation emitted in space (Foit et al., p.69). Another method deemed more accurate than the former is the observation of gravitational waves. It is a method based on Einstein's relativity theory that showed that when massive stars are dying, they leave small but dense remaining cores. And, when the masses of the core are of the order of three times bigger than that of the sun, gravitational force is produced that creates other black holes. And, when the black hole swallows other stars or merges with other black holes, gravitational waves that ripple the space-time horizon are produced. These waves can be detected as it happened in 2015.

With increasing advances in science and astronomy, mankind's understanding of black holes is taking shape. And, this explains the recent discoveries made in the field of astronomy where black holes have been detected through gravitational waves recorded at the LIGO observatory (Karttunen p.83). The signals were consistent with the predictions made for the merge of black holes. While this is the case, there have been questions and predictions on what may happen when two massive black holes collide. Quantum theory predicts that the collision of two black holes results in an interaction of their gravitational waves. The one with the higher gravitational force will swallow the other leading to the formation of a larger black hole. And, the impact of this is an extremely violent event. This has not been practically tested but simulations show that black hole merger through collisions would result in the emission of tremendous energy that would send massive and violent ripples that would oscillate on the space-time fabric of our universe. It is this ripples that are known as gravitational waves as the one detected by the LIGO in 2015.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the formation, detection, and collision of black holes serve as the perfect reminder of the mysterious nature of the universe. It provides hints on the marvel of science in helping human beings conceptualizing the beauty and marvel of mother nature and the universe.

Works Cited

Berry, Michael V. Principles of cosmology and gravitation. Routledge, 2017.

Foit, Valentino F., and Matthew Kleban. "Testing Quantum Black Holes with Gravitational Waves." arXiv preprint arXiv:1611.07009 (2016).

Karttunen, Hannu, et al., eds. Fundamental astronomy. Springer, 2016.