Does time stop in Black Holes?

Question

I was recently reading Steven Hawking's "The Universe in a Nutshell," and he said that time comes to an end in a Black Hole.

He also says that the Black Holes will eventually diffuse, and the energy released will contain information about what fell into the Black Hole.

This creates a paradox to me, something is apparently changing inside of the Black Hole if it retains information, yet he says there is no time. How could a change occur with no time?

Answer 1

Inside a black hole, time is infinitely dilated....so for someone observing from outside the black hole, "watching" someone inside the black hole...time would have stopped.
To the persons inside the black hole looking out, it would appear that time is flying by in an instant, infinitely fast for those outside.

A lot of the phenomenon about time requires specific frames of reference in describing them because the person observing from one frame can see something totally different than someone sees in another from....but they are both 'right'.

The theory which says that black holes will eventually diffuse / evaporate away is known as Hawking Radiation (guess who it is named after). This theory holds that, very slowly, black holes will radiate away their energy and evaporate away into nothingness.

Much of this is pure theory since what exactly goes on within a black hole is still a total mystery. As far as we can tell, no information can ever escape a black hole's event horizon....it is forever lost to the universe.
The laws of physics as we know them stop at the event horizon, we can only speculate what happens inside.

Answer 2

As it stands right now the Large Hardon Reactor can create small black holes. The reason that no rational person worries is that these holes will be so small that they will collapse onto themselves within a millionth of a second. So to answer your question, Yes, theoretically a black hole can cease to exist and stop being a black hole. But since black holes are such an anomaly to physics no one really knows. It's all guesses based on the limited information the scientific community has at this time. Edit: Also, the people who are saying that its impossible for a black hole to be anything but a blackhole don't know what they are talking about. They are assuming that because something is massive that it is unchangeable. It's very possible that these black holes do dissapear. Imagine the billions of year that the universe has existed. in that time frame we should consider that it is feasible that a black hole has come into and disappeared from existence.

Answer 3

Hmmm.. I don't really see the paradox.

Time ceases to exist inside the black hole. So, the black hole is basically a time capsule of all that has been pulled into it (compressed energy). At the point of final entry into the black hole change has stopped for that piece of energy. The fact that additional items (energy) is consumed into the time capsule, does not necessarily change the previous energy.

At the time of diffusion the black hole would begin releasing the energy again, and by the forms of energy released will give out information or hints as to what was previously consumed. Example, we can partially determine the composition of a star by the information released in the form of light waves, since different elements produce different colors and light as they are consumed.

At the time of diffusion, time would begin again for that released energy.

I've not read the book, but I'd assume time is being described as relative to observation, since nothing can be observed inside a black hole, time has ceased. Upon diffusion you would have observable energy once again. Time is really just a term we use to help quantify observable events. To a particle of energy, time is really not existent.

lolz.. how's that for a layman's theoretical thoughts on your questions..

Answer 4

Things can go in a black hole, changing the mass/energy inside the event horizon. Local time stops for you as you cross the horizon. I am not aware the concerns regarding lost information are completely resolved. Hawking radiation is a random, quantum mechanical effect wherein virtual particles forming near the horizon are elevated to real status by robbing gravitational energy from the hole. How information could be transmitted in such a random process is hard to see, considering what a physically simple beast a hole is (mass, spin, charge, that's about it).

Answer 5

Watch What the Bleep!? Down The Rabbit Hole and youll understand that black holes are just something people believe in because we dont know any better! I myself like white holes better so I wish more people believed in them.

Answer 6

This is a lot of knowledge to aquire if there was an answer. The only thing is, the answer cannot be shown. because God doesn't allow it. It's like eating the knowledge tree of evil and good.

Answer 7

He meant that time can be manipulated. However, little is known to us about black holes it's impossible to know for certain. It's also apparent that we know little about planets. R.I.P Pluto.

Answer 8

challenging issue. look into the search engines. just that could help!

Answer 9

Time does not stop it slows down.
Plus time and space are linked not matter.

Answer 10

that is the theory, but check out what Carl Sagen had to say about that..