From the various excited scientific
reports, I deduce that the black hole at the centre of the M87 galaxy
poses no immediate threat to us on Earth. Sinceit’s some 55 million
light years away, there are no more visions of being sucked away into a
bottomless pit. Pit? No, that’s not possible, because a black hole has
no bottom as far as we know. Also, it’s out there in the universe, so it
could well be Elysium, heaven, etc, therefore being the converse of the
netherworld. Perhaps that is what it means when there is no space-time
and all human constructs wither away, leaving you with, well, eternity.
When those beautiful ‘golden doughnut’
photographs of M87 black hole were released on Wednesday, the sheer
do-ability of such a capture overwhelmed us. Apart from the fact that
such a cosmic gobbler exists, that is. And not just one, but several
thousand in our very own Milky Way, the one in its very centre being a
massive black hole at least 30,000 light years away from our solar
system. But so many questions are floating around, especially among
non-scientists like me. In an interview for ET in 2008, I had asked
astrophysicist Michio Kaku, who has played such a big role in
popularising science, if smashing particles in a laboratory, like at the
European Organisation for Nuclear Research (Cern), would create black
holes.
“Black holes come in all sizes,” replied
Kaku. “You have tigers and small domestic cats. They are both from the
cat family. One is dangerous, the other is harmless. Similarly, you have
big black holes — the size of stars — and you have subatomic small
holes whose energy can barely light a bulb, which are totally harmless.
In fact, Earth is being hit by such particles all the time, and nothing
happens.” Now, that was very reassuring. But Kaku added, “If space is a
fabric, then of course fabrics can have ripples, which we have now seen
directly. But fabrics can also rip. Then the question is, what happens
when the fabric of space and time is ripped by a black hole?” Gulp.
That’s not a very comforting thought, however fascinating it may be.
Frankly, I can’t say I really understand
what that means. Perhaps, inside a black hole there is another
universe, one that we can’t even conceptualise? Who knows, if one
manages to reach a black hole’s ‘event horizon’ — a region in space-time
beyond which events cannot affect an outside observer, a kind of ‘point
of no return’ — and then ‘disappear’, maybe one would turn ‘immortal’,
ethereal, attain Satori — the Japanese Buddhist term for ‘awakening’, or
total comprehension — or, as Stephen Hawking theorised (now known as
Hawking Radiation), that your ‘information’ (what you are physically)
may get ‘smeared’ on the event horizon as you fall in.
So, even if you disappear or get
pulverised and vapourised when you fall into a black hole, some of your
‘information’ may be saved in the radiation that gets trapped in the
event horizon. Er, for what joy? Yes, too many complicated scenarios.
And, yet, this beautiful image of a black hole that looks like an
enticingly delicious golden doughnut from yonder definitely calls for
adoration. And celebration.
Hi. I’m Designer of Blog Magic. I’m CEO/Founder of ThemeXpose. I’m Creative Art Director, Web Designer, UI/UX Designer, Interaction Designer, Industrial Designer, Web Developer, Business Enthusiast, StartUp Enthusiast, Speaker, Writer and Photographer. Inspired to make things looks better.
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