Black holes are scattered all over our universe. We think that we understand the mechanics of them, to a certain extent, but do we really? We know that a black hole is such a powerful gravitational force that it can even suck light into it. The only way that we even know that one exists for sure is by seeing the disk of material that circles it, before it plunges into the center of the hole. The problem with this is that stars have been discovered that have the same type of disk. Swallowing planets, suns or even galaxies might be possible if there is a black hole big enough to do the job. Sometimes stars are found that are too near black holes and their material is drawn off into the hole. We believe that there is nothing more powerful than a black hole. I think that we should say instead that we haven't discovered anything more powerful than a black hole, since you never know what we may find out there.

Apparently black holes are quite common, a lot more common than first thought. NASA took a survey with the Swift satellite and found over 200 black holes within 400 million light years of the Earth. Remember these are only the ones that we found, there may be thousands or millions more that were too small to register. Here is the strange thing that the satellite found. We were always told that black holes suck in material, but the Swift satellite found some newly formed black holes that not only sucked in some material, but there was material that was being repelled. How could this be? Do black holes operate on some principle other than the attraction of a huge mass? Maybe when a black hole is first formed it has different proprieties than one that has been around for awhile? In either case, this was strange and unexpected news indeed. Something else was learned, not only were the black holes formed by the violent explosions of stars, but they caused several more explosions right after, by somehow reenergizing the initial explosion. "Stars are exploding two, three and sometimes four times in the first minutes following the initial explosion," said Prof. David Burrows of Penn State, University Park, Pa.

Waves Coming From Perseus
Photo Source: NASA

It is believed that the reason that some matter is being repelled by the young black holes is that it is being blasted away by the release of energy of material falling into the black hole. This may be due to the immaturity of the hole. Swift carries three main instruments: the Burst Alert Telescope (BAT); X-ray Telescope (XRT); and the Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope (UVOT). Some of the black holes discovered are actually billions of times more massive than our sun. It is hard to imagine something this dense and large. In size, one of these might be the size of our entire solar system. Black holes have been found that have jets of particles coming from them. These are thought to be protons and electrons. One discovery really has scientists puzzled, that is the fact that only a few percent of the black holes discovered are consuming matter. So why are these other black holes dormant? No one really knows. Maybe something has turned off their attraction or could it possibly be that after a certain age their attraction changes or is it that all black holes are not created equal? "It's hard to believe the whole sky is peppered with black holes," says University of Maryland researcher Dr Craig Markwardt.

I have talked about how galaxies collide in past articles, but I don't think that I have ever mentioned the fact that black holes also collide. It is believed and has been simulated on a computer, that black holes collide fairly often. It is thought that they are attracted to each other by the extreme gravitational attraction. When the collision occurs, it is thought that they lose up to 40% of their energy in the form of powerful gravity waves. These waves are so powerful that they torture the fabric of the universe. Scientists are now talking about constructing powerful gravity wave telescopes so that they can detect these waves. The Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO) in Hanford, Washington, began the search for gravity waves last year. On the drawing board is NASA's Laser Interferometer Space Antenna. As incredible as it sounds, satellites stationed 3 million miles apart will be connected by lasers. The size of the array will be 3 satellites and the launch date is 2015.

The jet of particles produced by some black holes is thought to provide much of the material for the universe. Somewhere along the way a strange thing happened. A set of binary stars was found that was sending a jet of material into space. Previously scientists believed that only black holes could do this. The discovery was made in the constellation of Circinus and is visible in the winter in the southern sky. Because of this discovery, scientists are now arguing again about what can cause these jets. Here is some information that will make the average person scratch their head. In 1969 Sir Roger Penrose and Stephen Hawking proved that material inside a black hole has a volume of zero and an infinite density. Don't feel bad, I don't understand this either.

A new particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider is being built outside Geneva, Switzerland, at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN). This will be the most powerful accelerator in the world, but maybe we should not build it? Why am I saying this, is it because I don't want to see America dethroned, because we now have the biggest accelerator? Absolutely not, I am also against the construction of the next American accelerator which promises to be even far more powerful than this new one. The problem is that scientists have predicted that since the machine is so powerful there is a very good chance that tiny black holes might be created when it is used. They go on to say that we shouldn't worry because they will dissipate almost instantly. Some scientists are worried that the holes won't dissipate. What would happen if a few tiny black holes got loose on the earth? Would they begin to suck material in, as is the nature of some and start to grow? I don't know and I don't think that anyone else knows for sure, but it certainly wouldn't be a good thing. Is it worth this kind of risk to build the new accelerators, what do you think?