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The other end of a black hole – with James Beacham

The Royal Institution・48 minutes read

Advancements in space travel allow for the exploration of black holes, revolutionizing the understanding of gravity through Einstein's general theory of relativity and challenging concepts of the universe. While black holes present existential risks and mysteries, they also offer insights into the relationship between gravity and quantum mechanics, with potential for new scientific discoveries through experimental methods.

Insights

Gravity, as understood through Einstein's general theory of relativity, arises from the bending and flowing of space due to the presence of matter, causing objects with high gravity to create sinkholes in space.
Black holes, once a puzzling prediction, have been detected in various galaxies, with the possibility of a small black hole orbiting our solar system, and the equation for creating a black hole involves packing mass tightly into a small volume.
The relationship between gravity and quantum mechanics, explored through black holes, hints at the existence of extra dimensions that could explain gravity's relative weakness compared to other forces, potentially leading to the creation of miniature black holes for scientific study and understanding.

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Summary

00:00

Unraveling Gravity: Black Holes and Beyond

In the future, space travel advancements allow for exploration of black holes, previously considered impossible.
Gravity is the force that keeps objects like the moon orbiting the earth and humans seated due to attraction between objects.
Isaac Newton, despite describing gravity well, couldn't explain its cause, leading to dissatisfaction.
Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity in 1915 revolutionized understanding of gravity, revealing how it warps space.
Gravity arises from the presence of matter bending and flowing space, changing the perception of the universe.
Objects with high gravity create sinkholes in space, causing space to flow towards their center.
Escaping a neutron star's gravity requires speeds close to the speed of light, beyond current human capabilities.
Excessive matter in a fixed space can create a black hole, where space flows inward faster than light, trapping everything.
Inside a black hole, a singularity with infinite density and curvature exists, challenging understanding and requiring further exploration.
The event horizon of a black hole marks a point of no return, where space flows faster than light, preventing escape and posing a mystery for exploration.

12:59

"Exploring Black Holes: A Cosmic Journey"

Sending a signal outside of a black hole's event horizon is impossible, making it a one-way trip.
To study a black hole up close, avoid the event horizon to ensure data can be shared with the scientific community.
Existential risks inside a black hole include extreme gravitational forces that could stretch you into spaghetti.
Black holes were initially a puzzling prediction, but evidence of their existence emerged in the 1960s and 1970s.
Astronomers detected a black hole near Cygnus X-1, emitting energetic x-rays and gamma rays.
Black holes are not rare and are found in the center of many galaxies, including our Milky Way.
A mysterious black hole, possibly the size of an apple, may be orbiting in the outer edges of our solar system.
The equation for creating a black hole involves packing mass into a small volume, with examples like Earth needing to fit into a blueberry-sized space.
The observable universe is expanding, with parts beyond our reach due to the universe's expansion at the Big Bang.
The observable universe is 93 billion light years in diameter, containing an estimated mass of 10^54 kilograms.

25:23

"Living Inside Black Holes: Possibilities and Origins"

To create a black hole from the observable universe, a diameter three times larger than the current observable universe would be required.
Even with uncertainties in astrophysical numbers, a sphere slightly larger than the current observable universe could potentially house the entire universe as a black hole.
Living inside a black hole seemed implausible initially due to misconceptions about black holes being destructive, but it depends on the size of the black hole.
Falling into a black hole the size of a solar mass black hole around London would result in immediate destruction, but larger black holes could allow survival inside the event horizon.
Black holes divide the physical world into two regions, with an event horizon acting as an unreachable barrier.
The mathematics of the interior of a black hole mirrors that of the exterior, with the event horizon growing as the black hole consumes matter.
The expansion of the universe suggests a past where everything was densely packed, akin to a singularity in a black hole.
The possibility of our universe originating from a black hole in another universe raises questions about the nature of black holes and their potential to birth new universes.
Testing the hypothesis of living inside a black hole is currently unfeasible due to the lack of experimental methods to distinguish it from other hypotheses.
The formation of black holes occurs through the collapse of enormous stars or potentially primordial black holes created near the Big Bang, requiring violent events to generate them.

38:07

"Exploring Forces, Gravity, and Black Holes"

There are four fundamental forces in the universe: the strong force, weak force, electromagnetism, and gravity, with varying strengths at the particle level.
The strong force is the most powerful force when two protons are close together, with a strength of one, while gravity is extremely weak at 10 to the power of minus 39 compared to the strong force.
The force of gravity between two protons is negligible at the Large Hadron Collider, making the creation of a black hole from two protons impossible.
Physicists are intrigued by black holes as they could help answer the question of the relationship between gravity and quantum mechanics, two fundamental theories that do not align when combined.
The inability to merge general relativity (governing gravity on large scales) and quantum field theory (governing the small scale) suggests a missing piece in our understanding of space's fabric.
Gravity's weakness compared to other forces might be explained by its existence in extra dimensions of space, where it leaks into these dimensions, potentially equalizing its strength with other forces.
The Planck scale, a limit based on nature's constants, could be altered by extra dimensions, potentially allowing the creation of miniature black holes with lower energy requirements.
While miniature black holes could theoretically be created at the Large Hadron Collider, they would evaporate immediately, aiding in the understanding of gravity and quantum mechanics.
Nature's cosmic ray collisions at higher energies than the Large Hadron Collider have never produced quantum black holes, ensuring safety despite theoretical possibilities.
Future plans for a larger collider, potentially around the moon, aim to reach higher energies to explore the Planck scale and potentially create miniature black holes for scientific advancement.

51:57

"Escaping Societal Black Hole Through Understanding"

Society is compared to a black hole, with the current state being likened to falling into a societal black hole due to various crises like the burning oceans, rising global temperatures, and mismanaged pandemics. The analogy suggests that just like in a black hole, the only way out is through, presenting an opportunity to construct a better world by deeply understanding societal structures.
The idea of building a circular collider around the moon is proposed as a means to study quantum gravity and prevent commercial exploitation of celestial bodies. This project aims to remind humanity that resources like the moon belong to everyone, advocating for a shift away from extractive mindsets and extreme wealth inequality.
Gravity creating black holes is contrasted with societal issues like wealth inequality, racist policing, and climate emergencies, highlighting that while gravity is a law of nature, these societal problems are human-made and can be human-unmade. The call to courageously dismantle these structures is emphasized to ensure a better future for humanity.

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