No Naked Black Holes

Science News reports on a paper to be published in Physical Review Letters in which an international team of researchers describes their computer simulation of the most violent collision imaginable: two black holes colliding head-on at nearly light-speed. Even in this extreme scenario, Roger Penrose's weak cosmic censorship hypothesis seems to hold — the resulting black hole (after the gravitational waves have died down) retains its event horizon. "Mathematically, 'naked' singularities, or those without event horizons, can exist, but physicists wouldn't know what to make of them. All known mechanisms for the formation of singularities also create an event horizon, and Penrose conjectured that there must be some physical principle — a 'cosmic censor' — that forbids singularity nakedness ..."

from the also-no-hair dept.

[suso]

Oh jeez.

Thats a lot of equations.

[MrKaos]

They're all Greek to me.

Re:Here come the goatse jokes

[Legion_SB]

It's already asking a lot for nerdlings to not snicker at any reference to a "hole".

Adding in nakedness just goes beyond any reasonable expectation of restraint.

Cosmic Censor

[aussie_a]

Penrose conjectured that there must be some physical principle â" a 'cosmic censor' â" that forbids singularity nakedness...

God, is that you?

Singularity nakedness on Slashdot

[unassimilatible]

Seems to me, most people on Slashdot likely *only* experience singularity nakedness.

Just as I suspected...

[Tau Neutrino]

...the maximal Cauchy development of generic compact or asymptotically flat initial data is locally inextendible as a regular Lorentzian manifold.

Right?

Re:Just as I suspected...

[Anpheus]

What if you reverse the polarity?

Re:There is no singularity

[DirtySouthAfrican]

There is no magical singularity where the laws of physics break down. There doesn't need to be.

Whatever helps you sleep at night, dude.

Emmett Brown

[Kagura]

That's heavy, Doc.

Re:Cosmic Censor

[NuclearError]

Sure is - black holes have mass and are therefore Catholic.

Re:Physicists...

[Anonymous Coward]

In other words, yo momma's so fat, her Schwarzchild radius is visible to the naked eye?

Re:Just as I suspected...

[sleeponthemic]

(Just make sure you don't cross the streams)

Penrose is a kill-joy.

[fahrbot-bot]

Penrose conjectured that there must be some physical principle -- a 'cosmic censor' -- that forbids singularity nakedness...

Which is why the DVDs "Physicists Gone Wild" were never really successful. Although the LHC did turn up as the hottest collider in Europe, so far still no naked singularities.

Re:Penrose is a kill-joy.

[nedlohs]

They're fixing that coolant leak. Calling them hot is just uncalled for.

Re:Cosmic Censor

[Bieeanda]

Yes, it is.

Now stop touching yourself.

Re:Just as I suspected...

[Filbertish]

Or maybe we could match the event horizon harmonics with an inverse tachyon pulse.

Confucius say

[Profane MuthaFucka]

Confucius say "Physicist who say there is no naked singularity should examine their equations through a peep hole."

Re:Just as I suspected...

[Anonymous Coward]

Have you tried logarithms? [xkcd.com]

Shhh

[caspy7]

You had me at naked...

Re:Apple Computer, The Homosexual's Favorite

[Anonymous Coward]

Anything that starts with

"Friends,"

is likely homosexual in itself. What a schmuck.

Re:Penrose is a kill-joy.

[illumastorm]

Collider? I barely know her!

Move Violent?...

[supernova_hq]

...the most violent collision imaginable: two black holes colliding head-on at nearly light-speed.

What about 3 black holes colliding head-on at nearly light-speed?

Re:Cosmic Censor

[retsil]

Every positron is sacred, every charge is great. If thy don't annihilate then thou must gyrate. Let the singularities spill them, let them loose their mass. ...

Re:There is no singularity

[iwein]

If photonst have weight

That would cause some other hairy problems, spelling being the least of them.

Re:Cosmic Censor

[ozbird]

Only if they eat wafers and sacrimental wine. Eating stars, solar systems etc. is gluttony - one of the seven deadly sins (collect them all!)

Re:Non-Condradiction

[bitrex]

I believe that some solutions have space being discrete at the Planck length, rather than continuous, and this discreteness also removes singluarities.

I spent $82,000 on tube amplifiers and vintage vinyl, and now you tell me God's system is digital? Auuuugghh...

Re:Emmett Brown

[Hal_Porter]

There's that word again; "heavy". Why are things so heavy in the future? Is there a problem with the earth's gravitational pull?

Re:Does anyone else get sad?

[Skazz11]

Having the massive intellect to comprehend the answers to all these questions does not make one less depressed.

Marvin.

Re:Does anyone else get sad?

[10am-bedtime]

Does anyone else get sad at the thought that there are so many weird things in the universe you may not learn the answers to in your lifetime?

I would submit that this is the lament of every intelligent being since the dawn of time (assuming there is a dawn of time).

I get sad assuming there be intelligent beings about. Oh well...

Re:Here come the BLACK HOLE jokes

[mcgrew]

Dude, that's so lame. For jokes about black holes, look no farther than the uncyclopedia.
Black hole [uncyclopedia.org]
Event Horizon [uncyclopedia.org]
Albert Einstein [uncyclopedia.org]
Stephen Hawking [uncyclopedia.org]

And of course we can't forget YOUR MOM! [uncyclopedia.org]

No go away or I shall taunt you again.

Re:Thats a lot of equations.

[weetabeex]

I don't. But then again, I fail to understand most of what's going on at slashdot most of the time...

Re:Move Violent?...

[Anonymous Coward]

Have you tried turning it up to eleven?