Black Holes Not Black After All, Theorize Physicists 227
KentuckyFC (1144503) writes Black holes are singularities in spacetime formed by stars that have collapsed at the end of their lives. But while black holes are one of the best known ideas in cosmology, physicists have never been entirely comfortable with the idea that regions of the universe can become infinitely dense. Indeed, they only accept this because they can't think of any reason why it shouldn't happen. But in the last few months, just such a reason has emerged as a result of intense debate about one of cosmology's greatest problems — the information paradox. This is the fundamental tenet in quantum mechanics that all the information about a system is encoded in its wave function and this always evolves in a way that conserves information. The paradox arises when this system falls into a black hole causing the information to devolve into a single state. So information must be lost.
Earlier this year, Stephen Hawking proposed a solution. His idea is that gravitational collapse can never continue beyond the so-called event horizon of a black hole beyond which information is lost. Gravitational collapse would approach the boundary but never go beyond it. That solves the information paradox but raises another question instead: if not a black hole, then what? Now one physicist has worked out the answer. His conclusion is that the collapsed star should end up about twice the radius of a conventional black hole but would not be dense enough to trap light forever and therefore would not be black. Indeed, to all intents and purposes, it would look like a large neutron star.
Earlier this year, Stephen Hawking proposed a solution. His idea is that gravitational collapse can never continue beyond the so-called event horizon of a black hole beyond which information is lost. Gravitational collapse would approach the boundary but never go beyond it. That solves the information paradox but raises another question instead: if not a black hole, then what? Now one physicist has worked out the answer. His conclusion is that the collapsed star should end up about twice the radius of a conventional black hole but would not be dense enough to trap light forever and therefore would not be black. Indeed, to all intents and purposes, it would look like a large neutron star.
Not just physicists (Score:5, Funny)
physicists have never been entirely comfortable with the idea that regions of the universe can become infinitely density
I'm pretty sure that editors outside of /. have never been entirely comfortable with that idea either.
Orange? (Score:5, Funny)
Orange is the new black...hole...
Re:wat (Score:5, Funny)
Infinite density (Score:5, Funny)
physicists have never been entirely comfortable with the idea that regions of the universe can become infinitely density.
They've clearly never been to DC. I'm convinced that regions of the universe are infinitely dense.
Re:So ... (Score:5, Funny)
Chicken. It looks like chicken.
Re:Do Slashdot editors actually edit? (Score:4, Funny)
What you say! These is much English goodly!
Re:So ... (Score:5, Funny)
Like a small neutron star. Only bigger.
Re:Do Slashdot editors actually edit? (Score:5, Funny)
"For all intents and purposes" has been down-grammaticised into "for all intensive purposes". The latter has no actual meaning.
That is untrue! For all intensive purposes i use an exercise machine!
Re:So ... (Score:5, Funny)
Imagine a perfectly spherical chicken...
Re:wat (Score:0, Funny)
Give Americans a few more generations and they will be fat enough to prove \ disprove the the theory.
Re:wat (Score:5, Funny)
Yeah, well... your MOM is infinitely dense.
Yours is not infinitely dense. After all, everyone penetrates her.