The universe is full of odd space activity.
From solar storms to disappearing stars, just when we think we have a grasp on what’s
going on out there, there’s something new that pushes the bounds of our understanding.
One such discovery was black holes, which are some of the most mysterious and confounding
objects in space.
The discovery of black holes in 1964 came decades after it was first theorized by Albert
Einstein, whose innovative ideas shook up our conception of the universe.
Just as we’ve begun to comprehend the nature of what a black hole is, the power it holds,
and the danger it poses, there comes another major black hole theory that could change
everything we know about these bizarre objects.
How do these black holes differ from ones we’ve studied before?
How does this discovery alter our understanding of black holes?
And what does this mean for us on Earth?
You’re watching Matter and here is some unusual activity detected in space that has
astronomers baffled.
Black holes are one of the most fascinating and intriguing objects that astronomers have
found out in the vastness of the cosmos.
A black hole is a super dense object that is born after a large star explodes in a supernova
while its core collapses in on itself.
After they collapse in on themselves, these objects are so dense that it is sometimes
called a hole in the fabric of spacetime.
These terrifying objects are found throughout our universe and supermassive black holes
are found at the center of most galaxies helping hold its structure together.
Black holes are typically very large, ranging in size from five solar masses all the way
to several billion solar masses.
Black holes are super dense objects born from dying stars.
They can range in size from five solar masses all the way to several billion.
Classifications of a black hole
One of the factors that astronomers use to define black holes is the Schwarzschild Radius.
This radius is the threshold at which the gravity created by the object will cause it
to collapse in on itself.
The Schwarzschild radius is directionally proportional to the mass of the object so
the more massive the object, the larger the Schwarzschild radius will be.
This means that if an object is compressed to the size of its Schwarzschild Radius, it
will become so dense that it will form into a black hole.
Our sun is huge compared to us and has a mass of one point nine eight nine times ten to
the thirtieth power kilograms.
That’s over three hundred and thirty thousand times the mass of the Earth.
If scientists wanted to create a black hole with all of that mass, they would have to
compress it down to its Schwarzschild Radius which would only be three kilometers across.
The Schwarzschild Radius is the threshold at which gravity will cause the object to
collapse in on itself.
It is directly proportional to the mass of the object.
For our sun with a mass of 1.989x1030 kg, which is more than 300,000 times the mass
of the Earth, the Schwarzschild Radius is only three kilometers across.
How are black holes usually formed?
Astronomers believe that black holes are formed when stars that are larger than twenty times
the mass of our sun reach the end of their life.
As these massive stars die, they will explode in brilliant supernovas scattering their outer
layers of mass out into space.
While this explosion is occurring in the outer layers of the star, the star's core begins
to collapse in on itself.
Eventually as the core becomes small and dense enough, a new black hole is born.
The cores of stars that create black holes are typically greater than five solar masses
themselves.
This gives them enough gravity to collapse smaller than their Schwarzschild Radii forming
the black hole.
If the mass of the star is less than twenty solar masses and its core is smaller than
five solar masses, when it dies and its core collapses, the mass left won't create a strong
enough gravitational pull to compress it to a black hole and instead it becomes a neutron
star which are the densest objects that we can see in the universe.
But is this the whole story of how black holes are formed or have astronomers missed something
along the way?
New evidence has come out suggesting that black holes can be much smaller than originally
thought.
All the way down to the microscopic scale.
When stars over twenty times the mass of our sun reach the end of their life, they will
die by expelling their outer layers in a massive supernova while its core begins to collapse
becoming more dense.
When the core becomes small and dense enough, it becomes a black hole.
The cores of the stars are usually around five solar masses themselves.
If the core is less massive than that they will not have enough gravity to collapse beyond
the Schwarzschild Radius and will become a neutron star.
What is a miniature black hole?
In recent years, physicists have been theorizing about the existence of black holes smaller
than any that have been detected in space.
Some of these theoretical black holes are incredibly tiny, on the super microscopic
scale.
These mini black holes are super hot, reaching temperatures well above any temperature that
astronomers have ever found, in the order of billions of billions of degrees Kelvin.
Because of their intense heat and miniscule size, these mini black holes evaporate extremely
quickly, on the order of a tiny fraction of a nanosecond.
But how would these black holes be formed?
How could matter get condensed small enough to pass its Schwazrschild radius?
Some scientists are worried that if two particles collide into each other while traveling near
the speed of light, the amount of force could be enough to form a miniature black hole on
Earth.
There have been several theories about mini black holes in recent years.
These mini black holes range from microscopic to a bit smaller than the black holes that
astronomers already are aware of.
How can the LHC create one?
The Large Hadron Collider, or LHC, is the world's largest particle accelerator located
in Switzerland and it is designed to accelerate particles in a massive twenty seven kilometer
loop.
It can accelerate protons as close to the speed of light as possible, reaching speeds
over ninety nine point nine nine percent the speed of light.
Once these protons are traveling at insane speeds, they then force two of the protons
to collide with each other creating massive bursts of energy.
The whole event only takes a fraction of a second so they have state of the art equipment
to capture every tiny detail of the collision.
If these protons strike each other in just the right way, they could theoretically compress
to below the Schrwarzschild radius and form microscopic black holes.
But these mini black holes are so small that they will evaporate almost instantaneously
and will not have an effect on life on Earth.
The Large Hadron Collider is capable of accelerating protons up to 99.999% the speed of light.
Once they are traveling this fast they force two of the protons to collide head on.
This collision releases an enormous amount of energy and theoretically has enough force
to compress the protons beyond their Schwarzschild radius to form a microscopic black hole.
What danger do they pose?
While the mini black holes that theoretically could be produced within the Large Hadron
Collider pose no risk to us, they are not the only new type of mini black hole being
talked about.
There may be other types of miniature black holes out there that could pose more of a
danger to us in some cases.
And if these types of black holes do exist, astronomers' understanding of how black holes
form and how they function may need to be revised.
These black holes are so small and hot that they will evaporate almost instantaneously.
But there may be other mini black holes that pose more of a danger to astronomers’ understanding
of black holes.
What are some small black holes that astronomers know about
How astronomers currently understand the way black holes are formed require that only stars
with masses of at least twenty solar masses have enough matter to create the forces necessary
to collapse into a black hole.
But new focus is being pointed toward a black hole that weighs far less than astronomers
expect one to weigh.
While looking into space one night, astronomers noticed a red giant star orbiting with a partner,
but that partner was invisible to them.
They knew that there was a second object locked in orbit with the star by studying the orbit
of the star.
By looking into the gravitational forces acting on the star so they could also estimate the
mass of the invisible object.
They calculated that this mystery object most likely weighs about three point three solar
masses.
This is quite a bit smaller than the minimum mass that a black hole should have if all
of the theories on their formation are correct.
If this is true, it would go against what many believe about the nature of black holes
and their formation.
This would lead astronomers to go back and rethink their understanding of the birth of
black holes and try to fit this new information into a new explanation.
No one knows what this new discovery will lead to and how it may shape the future understanding
of our universe.
Astronomers noticed a red giant star orbiting a partner that was invisible to them.
This invisible partner turned out to be a black hole.
After using the gravitational movements to calculate the mass of the black hole astronomers
found that it was most likely around 3.3 solar masses.
This is significantly less massive than astronomers believed was possible for a black hole to
be.
If these small black holes do exist then astronomers have to rework their understanding of black
hole formation.
Outro
The evidence currently available is pointing towards this object being a black hole.
And if this is confirmed, then this will be another piece of information to help astronomers
form a complete picture of our universe.
It seems that the more data that astronomers collect from outer space, the more questions
come up and occasionally the understanding of the universe’s nature needs to be revised.
Would the existence of these mini black holes change the way you look at the universe?
Or are they just another thing that makes our universe so intriguing?
If you watched all the way to the end we want to say thank you for watching and if you enjoyed
this video please feel free to hit the like and subscribe buttons so you won’t miss
any of our future videos.
Outro
The evidence currently available is pointing towards this object being a black hole.
And if this is confirmed, then this will be another piece of information to help astronomers
form a complete picture of our universe.
It seems that the more data that astronomers collect from outer space, the more questions
come up and occasionally the understanding of the universe’s nature needs to be revised.
Would the existence of these mini black holes change the way you look at the universe?
Or are they just another thing that makes our universe so intriguing?
If you watched all the way to the end we want to say thank you for watching and if you enjoyed
this video please feel free to hit the like and subscribe buttons so you won’t miss
any of our future videos.