Hey, I study Astronomy at GCSE level and have recently studied black holes. I have, of course, come across the normal theory of what a 'black hole' is - a star which has died and is so dense, and has such a strong gravitational force, that light simply cannot escape from it. But, after reading an Astronomy textbook written by Patrick Moore, I have come across another, slightly different theory for it.
It states that when a star (with a mass 8 times larger than that of our own Sun) dies, it collapses, extremely violently, and keeps doing so until the rate of its collapse exceeds the speed of light - thus being faster than light itself and not alowing any to escape. The nearest black hole similar to this is said to be Cygnus X-1, 6500 light-years from the Solar System.
I cannot find any other reference to this theory. Are black holes caused by strong gravity or bloody high speeds? Or have I just mis-interpreted the text?
2006-10-06 11:41:39 · 6 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
No you haven't misinterpreted Sir Patrick...but that's an old theory that is no longer considered valid.
The gravitational theory of black holes has been bolstered by considerable observational evidence, and by a ton of theoretical work.
Check the date on Sir Patrick's book -- it's probably sometime in the 60's or 70's, we've come a long way since then.
2006-10-06 11:45:25 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
No, that would violate the laws of physics. For a star to collapse faster than light, its component parts would also have to travel faster than the speed of light, which is an impossibility. To accelerate any mass to light-speed requires infinite energy, but the potential energy of infalling matter is very much finite.
2006-10-06 16:32:06 · answer #2 · answered by R[̲̅ə̲̅٨̲̅٥̲̅٦̲̅]ution 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
a million: Stellar 2: Supermassive Stellar black holes are the maintains to be of ineffective stars various cases heavier than our solar. Supermassive black holes have suggestions-boggling hundreds of a million million to a million billion cases our solar.
2016-12-26 11:32:25 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
most the thing u of black in carton come first on the funny or caton
2006-10-06 11:48:24 · answer #4 · answered by rnd1938 3 · 0⤊ 2⤋
ive heard of dormant ones active one spinning ones and ones that dont spin.
2006-10-06 14:13:04 · answer #5 · answered by breastfed43 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/science/know_l2/black_holes.html
http://cosmology.berkeley.edu/Education/BHfaq.html
http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/blackhole.html
2006-10-06 11:50:09 · answer #6 · answered by tronary 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋