Myriad Details of Black Holes :: physics science space

Introduction Definition: Black holes are rapidly spinning stellar bodies of incredible mass. A typical black hole has a mass many times that of our own sun , but the size approaches point density. For all intents and purposes, black holes are singularities, a fact that many physicists find contradictory, since in general the universe abhors a singularity. They are formed when a large sun exhausts its fuel and collapses to a very small volume. Of course, conservation of angular momentum and mass hold true, so as the star shrinks, it rotates faster and faster, and its density becomes greater and greater. Eventually, the star becomes so dense that space-time curves so much in its vicinity that not even light can escape. For more on space-time, click on curved space time at the bottom of the page. Black holes are fascinating phenomena. Only recently have physicists begun to even find proof of their existence, and yet their unique physical properties have extraordinary and galaxies-wide effects. The physics to truly understand the underpinnings of black holes have only been around since 1915 when Einstein conceived and presented his General Theory of Relativity, in which gravity is considered in terms of curved space-time. However, in Exposition of the System of the World, written over a hundred years earlier in 1798, Laplace predicted that masses of sufficient size would have a gravitational attraction so large that light itself could not escape. Stephen Hawking, the author of A Brief History of Time-- perhaps the most successful cogent popular science book ever written-- and an extraordinary physicist, wrote one of the definitive papers on the physics behind black holes. (and then interestingly enough, recanted his once firm belief that black holes even existed--at which time he married his nurse. Physicists are eccentrics in a long and noble tradition. Black Holes Collide "In a looming collision of giants, two super massive black holes are drifting towards a violent merger and an eruption of energy that will warp the fabric of space" Sound like science fiction? It isn't. The words above were written in an article entitled "Telescope Sees Black Holes Merging", by Paul Recer, writer for the online Yahoo Science AP. The article was posted November 19. 2002. The Harvard-sponsored Chandra Observatory has captured for the first time two black holes in orbit around each other in the extraordinarily bright galaxy NGC6240, a mere 400 million light years away. This is no stable orbit.