3 ms·
If we get actual evidence supporting that there could indeed be a black hole within our solar system, that seems like a true opportunity to advance our knowledg
by ramraj07 7y ago
If we get actual evidence supporting that there could indeed be a black hole within our solar system, that seems like a true opportunity to advance our knowledge of physics. The potential to study a real black hole up close seems worth massive investments given what kind of breakthroughs could he possible from it.
- lenkite 7y agoAlso a lovely, future power-source.
- 7373737373 7y agoHow would this work?
- basementcat 7y agoAmplified superradiant scattering is one option. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_hole_bomb https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_hole_bomb
- sbierwagen 7y agoIf it's rotating, you can extract its rotational energy using the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penrose_process https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penrose_process Additionally, all black holes constantly emit Hawking radiation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawking_radiation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawking_radiation Unfortunately for the planet 9 black hole, it only loses mass on balance it's below a certain size, about 0.007 earth mass. Primordial black holes of that size, if they exist, would be quite useful. However, they would be monumentally hard to find: the black hole above would be 62 micrometres in radius, and have an event horizon temperature of 2.93K. Assuming no changes to the cosmic microwave background, this black hole is unstable: it will eventually radiate away all its mass and disappear. You'll be waiting a while for that to happen, at 20 picowatts, it'll take 1.9e35 gigayears to die.
- codethief 7y agoYes and no. I mean, how would you study a black hole of radius ~5cm without getting really close? Consider that: 1. Time dilation dictates that it would take ages for any instrument to get near the black hole, conduct measurements and send its results back to Earth. 2. Time dilation also means you would never see anything fall into the black hole. So studying the inside of the black hole is out of question, too. But arguably this is what would be required to make any breakthroughs in our understanding of black holes. 3. Tidal forces near the event horizon of such a tiny black hole would have catastrophic consequences[1] for anything (human or object) that gets too close to it. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaghettification https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaghettification
- 7373737373 7y agoWouldn't this mean that these tidal forces may (have) cause(d) highly accelerated matter to shoot through our solar system?
- codethief 7y agoI assume you're referring to astrophysical jets[1] that are common with SMBHs. I'm afraid, though, I'm not familiar enough with jet physics to answer your question. A priori, the tidal forces only cause infalling matter to get shredded (and heated up). Whether a proper accretion disk together with a (significant) jet can form, given the size of the black hole, I don't know. On a related note: It'd be interesting to see in how far such a small BH would actually be capable of "sweeping [its] local neighbourhood clear of objects" like planets are (as was claimed in some comment above). Only then would I expect a significant accretion disk and, possibly, a jet. The reason the answer to this question is not obvious (at least to me) is once again the tiny size of the BH: How would anything manage to fall into the black hole, given that it's so tiny and, thus, very easy to miss? [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrophysical_jet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrophysical_jet