3 ms·
Brings back memories of Frederick Pohl's Gateway [1] book... (Spoiler) In the end, we learn that the main character (accidentally) abandoned his friends to a
by AceJohnny2 8y ago
Brings back memories of Frederick Pohl's Gateway [1] book...
(Spoiler)
In the end, we learn that the main character (accidentally) abandoned his friends to a black hole. However (plot twist), it is discovered that because of gravitational time dilation (?), decades later from Earth time's perspective means that his friends are still falling towards the black hole.
This always irked me, and this page explains why: the falling would have happened in a microsecond, it's just that the light from the falling ship will appear to slow down because of gravitational effect.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gateway_(novel) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gateway_(novel)
- userulluipeste 8y agoI see that you are considering only the light, but there is more than that. Time dilatation around gravitational fields is real (we have it on Earth too). Given the extreme setting in this regard around a black hole, it may be possible that, even if the falling object has not yet arrived at the event horizon, there to be a significant and increasing time frame difference between that of a distant observer and that of the object moving closer to gravitational center, which lets the observer see a progressively slower fall. I find this to be more likely the reasoning behind the novel's depiction.
- AceJohnny2 8y agoYes, you are quite correct! Nevertheless, the nitpick applies: in the timeframe of the narrator outside the black hole, it's already way too late.