What happens if you fall into a black hole. What will happen to the earth in a black hole

Black holes are one of the most amazing and at the same time frightening objects in our universe. They arise at the moment when stars with a huge mass run out of nuclear fuel. Nuclear reactions stop and the stars begin to cool down. The body of a star shrinks under the influence of gravity and gradually it begins to attract smaller objects towards itself, transforming into a black hole.

First studies

The luminaries of science began to study black holes not so long ago, despite the fact that the basic concepts of their existence were developed in the last century. The very concept of a "black hole" was introduced in 1967 by J. Wheeler, although the conclusion that these objects inevitably arise during the collapse of massive stars was made back in the 30s of the last century. Everything inside the black hole - asteroids, light, comets absorbed by it - once approached too close to the boundaries of this mysterious object and failed to leave them.

Black hole borders

The first of the boundaries of a black hole is called the static limit. This is the boundary of the region, falling into which a foreign object can no longer be at rest and begins to rotate relative to the black hole in order to keep from falling into it. The second boundary is called the event horizon. Everything inside the black hole once passed its outer boundary and moved towards the point of singularity. According to scientists, here the substance flows into this central point, the density of which tends to the value of infinity. People cannot know what laws of physics operate inside objects with such a density, and therefore it is impossible to describe the characteristics of this place. In the literal sense of the word, it is a "black hole" (or, perhaps, a "gap") in the knowledge of mankind about the world around us.

The structure of black holes

The event horizon is the impregnable boundary of a black hole. Inside this border there is a zone that even objects whose speed of movement is equal to the speed of light cannot leave. Even quanta of light itself cannot leave the event horizon. Being at this point, no object can escape from the black hole. By definition, we cannot know what is inside a black hole - after all, in its depths there is a so-called singularity point, which is formed due to the ultimate compression of matter. Once an object enters the event horizon, from that point on it can never break out of it again and become visible to observers. On the other hand, those who are inside black holes cannot see anything that is happening outside.

The size of the event horizon surrounding this mysterious cosmic object is always directly proportional to the mass of the hole itself. If its mass is doubled, then the outer boundary will also be twice as large. If scientists could find a way to turn the Earth into a black hole, the event horizon would be only 2 cm across.

Main categories

As a rule, the mass of average black holes is approximately equal to three solar masses or more. Of the two types of black holes, stellar and supermassive ones are distinguished. Their mass exceeds the mass of the Sun by several hundred thousand times. Stars are formed after the death of large heavenly bodies. Black holes of ordinary mass appear after the completion of the life cycle of large stars. Both types of black holes, despite their different origins, have similar properties. Supermassive black holes are located at the centers of galaxies. Scientists suggest that they were formed during the formation of galaxies due to the merger of closely adjacent stars. However, these are only guesses, not confirmed by facts.

What's inside a black hole: conjectures

Some mathematicians believe that inside these mysterious objects of the Universe there are so-called wormholes - transitions to other Universes. In other words, a space-time tunnel is located at the singularity point. This concept has served many writers and directors. However, the vast majority of astronomers believe that there are no tunnels between universes. However, even if they really were, there is no way for a person to know what is inside a black hole.

There is another concept, according to which there is a white hole at the opposite end of such a tunnel, from where a gigantic amount of energy comes from our Universe to another world through black holes. However, at this stage in the development of science and technology, travel of this kind is out of the question.

Connection with the theory of relativity

Black holes are one of the most amazing predictions of A. Einstein. It is known that the gravitational force that is created on the surface of any planet is inversely proportional to the square of its radius and directly proportional to its mass. For this celestial body, you can define the concept of the second cosmic velocity, which is necessary to overcome this gravitational force. For the Earth it is equal to 11 km/sec. If the mass of the celestial body increases, and the diameter, on the contrary, decreases, then the second cosmic velocity may eventually exceed the speed of light. And since, according to the theory of relativity, no object can move faster than the speed of light, an object is formed that does not allow anything to escape beyond its limits.

In 1963, scientists discovered quasars - space objects that are giant sources of radio emission. They are located very far from our galaxy - their remoteness is billions of light years from Earth. To explain the extremely high activity of quasars, scientists have introduced the hypothesis that black holes are located inside them. This view is now generally accepted in scientific circles. Studies that have been carried out over the past 50 years have not only confirmed this hypothesis, but also led scientists to the conclusion that there are black holes in the center of every galaxy. There is also such an object in the center of our galaxy, its mass is 4 million solar masses. This black hole is called Sagittarius A, and because it is closest to us, it is the one most studied by astronomers.

Hawking radiation

This type of radiation, discovered by the famous physicist Stephen Hawking, greatly complicates the life of modern scientists - because of this discovery, many difficulties have appeared in the theory of black holes. In classical physics there is the concept of vacuum. This word denotes complete emptiness and the absence of matter. However, with the development of quantum physics, the concept of vacuum has been modified. Scientists have found that it is filled with so-called virtual particles - under the influence of a strong field, they can turn into real ones. In 1974, Hawking found that such transformations can occur in the strong gravitational field of a black hole - near its outer boundary, the event horizon. Such a birth is paired - a particle and an antiparticle appear. As a rule, the antiparticle is doomed to fall into the black hole, and the particle flies away. As a result, scientists observe some radiation around these space objects. It is called Hawking radiation.

During this radiation, the matter inside the black hole slowly evaporates. The hole loses mass, while the radiation intensity is inversely proportional to the square of its mass. The intensity of Hawking radiation is negligible by cosmic standards. If we assume that there is a hole with a mass of 10 suns, and neither light nor any material objects fall on it, then even in this case the time for its decay will be monstrously long. The life of such a hole will exceed the entire lifetime of our Universe by 65 orders of magnitude.

The question of saving information

One of the main problems that appeared after the discovery of Hawking radiation is the problem of information loss. It is connected with a question that seems very simple at first glance: what happens when the black hole evaporates completely? Both theories - both quantum physics and classical - deal with the description of the state of the system. Having information about the initial state of the system, with the help of the theory it is possible to describe how it will change.

At the same time, in the process of evolution, information about the initial state is not lost - a kind of law on the conservation of information operates. But if the black hole evaporates completely, then the observer loses information about that part of the physical world that once fell into the hole. Stephen Hawking believed that information about the initial state of the system is somehow restored after the black hole has completely evaporated. But the difficulty lies in the fact that, by definition, the transmission of information from a black hole is impossible - nothing can leave the event horizon.

What happens if you fall into a black hole?

It is believed that if in some incredible way a person could get to the surface of a black hole, then it would immediately begin to drag him in the direction of itself. Eventually, the person would stretch out so much that they would become a stream of subatomic particles moving towards the point of singularity. Of course, it is impossible to prove this hypothesis, because scientists are unlikely to ever know what happens inside black holes. Now some physicists say that if a person fell into a black hole, then he would have a clone. The first of his versions would be immediately destroyed by a stream of hot particles of Hawking radiation, and the second would pass through the event horizon without the possibility of returning back.

Black holes still remain a mystery to scientists, challenging the postulates of modern physics. We hardly understand the principle of their existence and practically do not understand what they really are and what they do. And it's impossible to know.

At least with the current level of technology that humanity has. The only thing left for us is to observe them and make assumptions about what they are capable of. One of the most popular questions about black holes is: What will happen to you if you fall into a black hole? Let's analyze the 10 most terrible theories that answer this question.

Cloning

The information paradox of black holes has puzzled scientists for decades. This mystery has sparked countless debates about what actually happens once you fall into a black hole. To make this paradox easier to understand, let's look at the example of a hypothetical Lucy.

You fly yourself with Lucy into a black hole, and at the last second she decides not to get there and is now watching how you are sucked into it. Lucy sees that as you approach the black hole, your body begins to slowly stretch and eventually split into atoms. Lucy thinks that you died and is grateful to fate that she did not listen to you and did not go after you.

However, wait. After all, this is not how the story ends. You actually remain alive and continue to go deeper into the infinity of the black hole. What happens to you next is not the point of our question. The most interesting thing is that you survived, although Lucy saw you die.

This is the black hole information paradox. This is no illusion, and Lucy has not lost her mind. This is what it really is. The laws of physics tell us that you can be both dead outside of a black hole and alive inside one at the same time. Some scientists theorize that this is not a paradox at all, since you simply cannot observe two realities at the same time.

Others point to cloning (the possibility of another you existing in another reality) as a possible solution to this paradox, even though it defies the laws of quantum mechanics regarding the process of storing information.

There is no definite answer to solve this paradox (yet). Perhaps, in thousands of years, humanity will be able to figure out what is really happening. However, it is already known for sure that Lucy is no longer worth taking with you on trips.

spaghettification

There is a suggestion that as soon as you get into the event horizon of a black hole, you will begin to experience a powerful stretch caused by a large tidal force in a very strong non-uniform gravitational field. As soon as you start falling into a black hole, forces will begin to act on your body, which will eventually tear you into small pieces (rather even particles).

Moreover, if you fall into a black hole with your head first, it will be so far away from your body that you will start to look like spaghetti. The bottom line is the difference in acceleration due to gravity, which will affect your head and legs. It will be so colossal that you will stretch out like spaghetti or noodles if you want. Hence the name spaghettification.

Distortion of light, space and time

The first thing anyone notices before they hit the event horizon of a black hole is how different light, space, and time become. As soon as you get inside, the laws of physics (those that are known to us) will cease to exist for you, and completely different forces will come into force.

The infinite level of gravity produced by the singularity at the center of a black hole can bend space, reverse time, and change light beyond recognition. Because of this, your perception of what is happening now will be completely different from what was happening before you entered the event horizon. Of course, this will last exactly until the moment when you are completely absorbed by the endless darkness and will no longer be able to perceive anything at all.

Time travel

The greatest physicists who lived on our planet, such as Einstein and Hawking, theorized at one time that time travel to the future would be possible using the internal laws of black holes. As mentioned earlier, the usual laws of physics inside a black hole cease to operate and completely different ones take on the main role. One of the things that makes black holes different from our world is how time flows in them.

The gravity inside a black hole is so powerful that it can warp time. Given this, it can be assumed that the warp of time opens up the possibility of travel in it.

Therefore, if we learn to use such striking differences between the space inside and outside the event horizon, then, quite possibly, due to gravitational time dilation, we can go to the future, where you will still remain young, while your friends will already grow old.

Of course, we should not forget that we have not yet come up with not only a way to travel through black holes, we do not even know how to get to them and, more importantly, survive all this.

Nothing will happen to you

If one day we have the choice of which black hole to travel through, then most likely we should choose some supermassive black hole or a Kerr black hole.

If we can ever get to the black hole at the center of our galaxy, which is about 25,000 light-years away and about 4.3 million times more massive than our Sun, then perhaps we can be completely safe for our health. pass through it.

The concept of this idea is that the gravitational forces of the hole, affecting whoever wants to fall into it, will be quite insignificant due to the fact that the event horizon is located much further from the center of the black hole. In this way, you can stay alive inside the event horizon and die only from starvation and dehydration, and possibly from the fact that you finally fall into the singularity. Here you can bet on what will happen first, because there is no more accurate answer yet.

Moreover, it is theoretically possible to stay alive and live the rest of your life inside a Kerr black hole, which is a completely unique type of black hole, the theory of which was first proposed in 1963 by the New Zealand mathematician and astrophysicist Roy Kerr.

Then he suggested that if black holes are formed from dying binary neutron stars, then it will be possible to get inside such a black hole completely unharmed, since the centrifugal force will prevent the emergence of a singularity at its center.

The absence of a singularity at the center of a black hole would, in turn, mean that you would not have to fear infinite gravitational forces and could survive.

According to Einstein, until the very end you will not understand what is happening

Einstein suggested that if you achieve a certain level of free fall, then you can cancel the effect (or even rather the perception) of gravitational forces. This means that if a person in free fall ceases to feel his own weight, any thing that is thrown into a black hole with him will not appear to fall. Rather, it will seem that she will soar.

Einstein developed this idea and derived from it the world-famous general theory of relativity, perhaps his most successful idea. And perhaps this will be the happiest thought for you if you fall into a black hole. Even if you fall into God knows what, you will still not be able to understand that you are falling until you fall into a singularity.

However, if at this moment someone can watch you from the side, then they will definitely see that you are falling. All of this has to do with perception. Whatever surrounds you will fall relative to you (and as a result you will not be able to understand that you are falling), while for all those who follow you, this will not be the case.

white hole

It is known that black holes eventually absorb absolutely everything that falls into their event horizon. Even light cannot escape a tragic fate. What is less known is what happens to all these doomed particles further. According to one theory, everything that enters a black hole from one end gets out from the other end. And this second end is the so-called white hole.

Of course, no one has yet seen any white holes (and black ones, too, frankly. We know about their existence only thanks to their powerful gravitational influence), so no one can say with certainty whether they really are white. However, the reason they are called that is because white holes are the exact opposite of what black holes are.

Instead of absorbing everything around them, they, on the contrary, spit out everything that is inside them. And as in the case of a black hole, from which you can’t escape if you get into its event horizon, so it’s the same with a white hole. Just the other way around: you won't be able to get into it.

In short: a white hole spits out everything that was consumed by a black hole into an alternate universe. This theory, to some extent, led physicists to think about the possibility that white holes are the basis for the creation of our universe as we know it. And if you ever fall into a black hole and somehow survive and can exit from the other side through a white hole in an alternative universe, then you will never be able to return back to our universe.

You will follow the history of the development of the Universe

As mentioned earlier, there is a possibility of black holes without a singularity at their center. Instead, there will be a so-called wormhole in the center. If we find a way to travel through the wormhole, we will most likely witness a history of the evolution of the universe that can be observed all the way to whatever lies at the other end of the wormhole. It will look like someone playing a video of the history of the universe in infinite fast-forward.

Unfortunately, this story will still have a bad ending. The faster the picture moves, the faster you will get closer to your death. The light will become more and more blueshifted and charged until you are completely roasted alive by its radiation.

Journey to a parallel universe

If one day you fall into a black hole, whether consciously or accidentally, the first thing to do is to try to look around. Maybe you can find a way out this way, who knows. Even if it turns out that it will not work to return to the Universe where you came from, then ending up in a parallel Universe may not be such a bad end to your journey.

Physicists theorize that once you reach the singularity of a black hole, it can serve as a kind of bridge for you between this and an alternate reality, or the so-called "parallel universe." What happens in this new universe remains a mystery and a field for our imagination.

Some theories even suggest that there are an infinite number of alternate universes, each containing an equal number of completely different "yous".

Have you ever thought about the choices you have made in your life? What would happen if you didn’t get this job, but that job, met that girl or guy, instead of sitting at the computer every day? Would you have become richer or poorer if you had not done or done what you were once asked to do? So, in an alternate universe, you will have a chance to find out.

You will become part of the universe

Hawking once suggested that certain particles entering a black hole undergo a sort of filtering process into positively charged and negatively charged ones. These particles are very slowly absorbed by the black hole. With immersion in it, negatively charged particles lose their mass.

Positively charged particles have enough energy to stay outside the black hole as radiation.

According to Hawking, black holes are slowly but surely losing their mass and getting hotter. They eventually explode and scatter their contents, called Hawking radiation, back into the universe. This, at least in theory, means that you can become part of the universe, like a Phoenix reborn from atomic ashes.

Bonus: You will just… die

Sometimes we are very fond of ignoring the most obvious and terrible consequences of an event, being blinded by the likelihood of more joyful coincidences.

As sadistic as it sounds, the most likely outcome of your fall into a black hole is that even before you can even understand your presence inside it, not even dust will remain of you. You won't even have time to realize that you have witnessed what physicists talk about as the key to understanding the mysteries of the universe.

Science assumes that a black hole is formed as a result of the right combination of circumstances when a star explodes.

When a star has existed for a very long time, its contents are almost "burned out", the star is divided into a core and upper layers, which begin to swell. The star increases in size many times over. Then there comes a moment when the star quickly goes out. At this moment, nothing holds its swollen layers and they rush back to the core of the star with great speed. There is a collision of terrible force, which causes a strong explosion. As a result, the outer part of the star flies into space, while the inner part, on the contrary, is squeezed and squeezed.

Squeezing leads to the fact that all matter (all atoms) is located as densely as possible. You probably remember that matter consists of atoms and the distances between atoms are huge. We can say that usually any matter consists almost entirely of emptiness. And only occasionally there are atoms.

So, as a result of the impact, the atoms are compressed like herrings in a barrel. There is no more emptiness. This is a neutron star. This is a very extreme view of the star and she is also impressive. But it's not a black hole yet.

For a black hole to form, the impact must be even stronger. The blow must be of such force that the atoms begin to literally push into each other. Such a force that the atoms have no forces that could resist it. As a result, the atoms begin to fall into each other. Now there are 2 atoms in one place at the same time. But there is no obstacle in pushing the third atom, the fourth, the tenth, the hundredth, with the same effort. So inside the star (or rather what is left of the star) a microscopic black hole appears. Moreover, this process will continue, the black hole will grow and will soon begin to rapidly drag the star itself (already without any additional compression). New and new mass falls into one point and nothing can stop it. Very soon (I don't know exactly, but probably in a matter of seconds, maybe minutes, hours) all that's left of the star disappears inside the black hole.

Summing up. A black hole is the result of such an amazing phenomenon that (if you try very hard at first), apparently, you can cram as much matter as you like (tons, billions of tons, billions of billions of tons) into a microscopic volume of space the size of one atom. This pit will never be filled, it is bottomless. Moreover, it is worth even a small amount of matter to fall into one point, as it (thanks to the law of attraction) begins by itself, without any effort, to attract and pull everything around inward.

One could say that a black hole has no dimensions. Its size is a point, an infinitely small size. But there is a tradition in science that the "event horizon" is considered to be the size of a black hole. This is such an imaginary sphere around a black hole, once inside which there is no way back: gravity is so strong there that nothing can fly back out, so we cannot know what is inside. Since even light cannot escape, the event horizon looks like a completely black sphere from the outside (apparently, hence the name "black hole"). The more mass a black hole has (the more matter fell into it), the stronger its gravity, the larger the size of this sphere (event horizon). Very large black holes have the mass of millions of suns and are comparable in size to the size of the Earth's orbit around the sun (such a black hole is located in the center of our galaxy). Small black holes can have a mass of 3-5 Suns and a size of several tens of kilometers.

Neither humans nor satellites (at least those made by humans) have fallen into black holes, because the nearest black hole is very far away. There are no black holes in the solar system.

If an astronaut falls into a black hole, he will die. There will come a moment when, due to the incredibly strong gravity, his lower body will tear off from his upper body. This process will continue until the astronaut is divided into atoms. At the same time, from the sides, gravity will, on the contrary, squeeze it and, in the end, flatten it into a string of atoms. These atoms will continue to fly towards the center of the black hole.

But we won't see all of this. If the black hole is large enough, then (looking from the side) we will see how the astronaut flies up to the event horizon, his image freezes, dims and dissolves into absolute blackness. Although if the black hole is small, then the astronaut will most likely die (for the same reasons) even before he reaches the black hole (to the event horizon).

P.S. For the sake of simplicity of description, I made some small inaccuracies that do not affect the general idea of ​​what was said.

Kevin Pimblet, a professor at the University of Hull in the UK, called it very likely that the Earth could be drawn into a black hole and told what should happen in this case.

A black hole is such a dense region of space that even light and its quanta cannot overcome the gravitational pull of this region. After all, the denser the object, the stronger its gravitational field. The boundary of a black hole has a separate name - the event horizon. What happens near the event horizon is a big mystery. Astrophysicists, despite many years of research, can only assume one or another of its properties.

There is a theory that black holes can turn anything into spaghetti. On this occasion, even a special term was coined - "spaghettification". This astrophysical term refers to the strong stretching of objects vertically and horizontally, which is caused by a large tidal wave in a gravitational field.

As the physics teacher noted, this is one of the problems that does not allow us to study black holes in a practical sense. The body of a hypothetical astronaut as it approaches the center of a black hole will stretch, acquiring the shape of spaghetti or noodles. The same applies to any other objects that approach the event horizon.

So what would happen if a black hole appeared out of nowhere near the Earth?

Gravitational effects will cause the planet to stretch more and more until it turns into a stream of subatomic particles that are sucked into a black hole. Thus, the death of mankind would be inevitable.

At the same time, the scientist notes, we could not replace our falling into a black hole at all.

The fact is that black holes slow down time inside themselves. Approaching it or being on the event horizon, a person would feel how time slows down, and the clock begins to count the seconds slower and slower.

In addition, there are a lot of objects in a black hole with a different time shift, and theoretically, humanity on a planet pulled into a hole could observe space objects that fell there earlier.

As the specialist noted, when we get into a supermassive black hole, we might not notice anything at all, at least for a short period of time. Moreover, this segment in subjective reality could stretch to infinity.

So humanity on Earth, if it suddenly begins to be pulled into a black hole, will live at least in the form of holograms. The scientist spoke about this in the journal The Conversation.

Pimblet clarified that people have to be very unlucky to end up in a black hole.

Black holes are the most attractive celestial bodies. But what if, instead of figuratively drawing your attention, one of them starts drawing the Earth towards itself? A British astrophysicist spoke about what could happen in this case.

Black holes enjoy enduring popularity in modern culture. It is unlikely that any other type of space objects (except asteroids and meteorites, of course) attracts so many researchers and those simply interested in space. Interest in black holes is fueled by the hadron collider and the recent discovery of gravitational waves.

Just in connection with the latest discovery, it can be argued that black holes still exist. So, we may well meet with them. Astrophysicist Kevin Pimblet from the University of Hull in the UK told what would happen if our planet starts falling into a black hole. According to Pimbblet, there are several scenarios for the development of events.

The most interesting and difficult to present and understand was the scenario called " spaghettification". Let's take a closer look at this process.

The part of our planet that is closer to the black hole will be attracted somewhat faster. So the matter will gradually begin to flow in a thin stream towards the black hole, becoming thinner and longer. As a result, the Earth will take the form of an infinitely long thread, which will disappear from view at the edge of the event horizon. The same will happen with all objects on the planet. And only then, after a sufficiently long time, the black hole will suck in all the matter that makes up the Earth.

How the human senses will work at this time is unknown. It is possible that when falling into a black hole, earthlings will not notice anything unusual. At least if it is a very large black hole - that's how the physics of the event horizon works.

Another scenario suggests a less original and more unambiguous development of events. If the black hole is located in the center of the quasar, the planet will be burned on the way. And there is no need to talk about any unique physical processes in this case.

Well, the last scenario proposed by Pimbblet seems quite fantastic. According to the scientist, there is some probability that as a result of the attraction of the Earth by a black hole, the planet will not disappear forever. No, the planet known to us will be destroyed. But instead of it, a certain “hologram” will appear, an inaccurate copy.

Unfortunately, all options are now unconfirmed hypotheses. We know too little about black holes. Thanks to research done with the giant LIGO interferometer, we only know that they exist. But what is in a black hole, beyond the event horizon, and whether the human brain operating in three-dimensional space is able to imagine it, remains one of the most interesting mysteries of modern science.