I have been told that it takes forever for something to cross the event horizon of a black hole. If that is true, how does anything ever get in there? And does this mean that forever has already passed in order for the black holes to be there in the first place?
2007-02-03 10:42:05 · 7 answers · asked by Shawn D 3 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
Forever? I think this is a reference to what we would see, if we were outside the BH and watching something fall into it.
Some stories go like this: Imagine we drop some sort of clock into the BH. As we watch it drop, the time on it seems to slow down. As it gets closer to the event horizon, it slows down more and more ... until it seems to practically stop. Say it shows 12:34:56. We wait and wait, but it just seems to sit on the event horizon, showing the same time. We wait "forever" - the clock just sits there. It seems it is going to take forever to cross the event horizon.
But wait, there's more!! From the point of view of the clock, nothing special happens at the event horizon. It just keeps on going, falling into the gravity of the BH.
Except -- it does not quite work that way. First of all, the gravitational tidal forces would rip the clock to atomic dust, long before it got to the event horizon. Then the forces would rip the atoms apart. We could see that all right!
Then the atomic particles would be sucked toward the event horizon. There might be ways to "see" that, but I don't know what they are. If we could, the light (radiation) from the particles would get dimmer ... and dimmer ... and dimmer ... until it's lost in the Hawking radiation.
For a better description, see the link.
2007-02-03 11:08:52 · answer #1 · answered by morningfoxnorth 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
crossing the event horizon happens very quickly. It's simply the point where the gravitational effect of the central body excedes the speed of light and therefore anything closer within that point can no longer be seen visually. All the theories about time distortion are only that, theories. Untill some one steps across that point, either by robotic probe or another way, and then steps back out again, the time distortion factor will never be known for fact.
2007-02-10 12:03:53 · answer #2 · answered by sboy9869 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
This is all wrong :)
If you were to fall into a black hole, it would just feel as though you were free falling. There is no time decceleration.
Once passed the event horizon, If someone were watching you, it woul appear as though you were being ripped apart particle by particle, turning to dust.
But you, falling into the black hole, will feel alive and as though you were in one piece, that is because it smears the information in the molecules.
And then, according to the old information paradox, you would disapear, but since that has been contradicted by Hawking himself, it seems as though you would be transferred to another black hole.
2007-02-04 03:09:34 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I believe you have confused points of view. Time passes slower for the observer approaching the black hole. The passage of time does not slow down for those of us that remain at any reasonable distance from the black hole. Time does not flow uniformly.
2007-02-03 11:02:00 · answer #4 · answered by anonimous 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
i think its like taking a lenth of time say 1 minute thats only 60 seconds but if you cut it in half its 30 seconds and again its 15 seconds and if you do this over and over you can half time into infinity. but i dont think they work quit like that because some are dorment wich implies a period of time were matter is not traveling into the event horizon.
2007-02-10 05:16:16 · answer #5 · answered by Tony N 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Black holes are theoretical entities that cannot exist!
2007-02-04 00:56:33 · answer #6 · answered by Billy Butthead 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No. Blackholes are the figment of the mind that knows too much and not very much at all.
2007-02-03 11:00:36 · answer #7 · answered by jim m 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋