Download Pedroso Mark Pedroso Mrs. Funk Inquiry Skills April 18, 2014 The

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Mark Pedroso
Mrs. Funk
Inquiry Skills
April 18, 2014
The effects of black holes
When one is outside during night time and looks up, that person will see thousands of
stars of many sizes, and color. Sometimes, if luck strikes, the person could get to see planets that
also glow brightly such as Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and so on. But there is one thing that is hidden
from the naked eye and can make any of the things mentioned previously, disappear. That thing
is called a black hole. Do not worry, this celestial body will not encounter planet Earth soon, but
it still can affect it and human life in many ways.
Black holes are the mystery of our cosmological universe. They have been baffling even
the greatest scientists like Stephen Hawking for many years and yet not many people know about
them. To understand how black holes are confusing scientists and how they can affect human
lifestyles, one has to know how black holes work. Black holes are created when a giant star,
twenty-five times bigger than the sun, dies and collapses on itself from its own gravity to form an
object of infinite density and zero volume which forms a black hole. If one were to analyze the
parts of a black hole, one would find an event horizon and a singularity. The event horizon is
basically the point of no return, which means that nothing can escape the black hole’s grasp once
it reaches that point, not even light. Light travels at about 300,000,000 miles per second so the
black hole’s amount of gravity has to be enormous. The other region within the black hole would
be the singularity, which is the point of infinite density and zero volume. Hypothetically, if a
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human was sucked into a black hole, first spaghettification will occur. That means one will get
stretched out until the point of snapping. Then each half snaps again until the person is just a
bunch of atoms getting pulled towards the center of a black hole. This is only for stellar black
holes. If one were to get sucked up by a supermassive black hole then one would not notice
anything. If someone were watching a person getting sucked inside they would not see that
person crossing the event horizon but instead see him slow down and hover just outside of it.
After that, the person would get dimmer and redder until he cannot be seen anymore. Of course
this is hypothetical because the nearest black hole is light years away and the sun could never
turn into a black hole because the sun is too small to qualify for a black hole. The sun will
eventually turn into a red giant star and boil planet Earth’s surface. But assume our sun did turn
into a black hole. Most people will think that every planet around it would just get sucked up
right away, but that is not the case. Every single planet would continue to orbit just the way they
always do but of course there would be no light source so all life on earth would die in a matter
of months. Space is black and black holes are black so how do scientists locate where black holes
are? When a scientist finds a black hole he doesn’t see where it is by looking at it through a high
powered telescope, he looks at the effects that a black hole creates. “Many black holes have
objects around them, and by looking at the behavior of the objects you can detect the presence of
a black hole. You then use measurements of the movement of objects around a suspected black
hole to calculate the black hole's mass.” (Craig Freudenrich). Another way to detect if there is a
black hole is by the emission of radiation. Whenever a black hole is pulling a near star in it and
material comes inside of it, it will emit x-rays. There is actually a star right now getting pulled
into a black hole called Cyngus X-1 and the black hole is emitting jets, which is when matter is
shot out of the black hole at very high speeds. The one major thing that scientists right now are
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stumped on is where does the matter that enters a black hole go? This is a really controversial
topic. Some say it turns into gravitational energy, some say it is stored somewhere inside, and
some are starting to question the conservation of energy law. Now, black holes might seem far
away but their effect is closer than one might think.
Black holes have many effects on galaxies, including the Milky Way. To know what
effects they have we first have to know the sizes of black hole and the types of black holes.
There are two types of black holes the first is called a stellar black hole. A stellar black hole is
the most common black hole because it forms whenever a star has a supernova at the end of its
life. A supernova is a giant explosion that occurs when a star runs out of chemicals to burn. After
the explosion there is just a stellar remnant left. With no outward forces to counter the
gravitational forces, the remnant will collapse in on itself to a point of zero volume and infinite
density. That place is called the singularity. Around the singularity is a very strong gravitational
field in which light cannot even escape from its grasp. That is the reason why scientists do not
know what happens in or past the event horizon because there is no light. Stellar black holes are
normally about ten to one hundred solar masses. A solar mass is basically the amount of suns
that could fit in the object. So something that is one hundred solar masses is one hundred times
bigger than our sun. This is considered a baby compared to the second type of black hole out
there. The second one is called a supermassive black hole and this one could be millions or
billions of solar masses. The biggest one scientists have found so far is seventeen billion solar
masses. “It makes up about fourteen percent of its host galaxy's mass, compared with the 0.1
percent a normal black hole would represent.” (Elizabeth Howell) The formation of
supermassive black holes is the mystery for modern day astrophysics. There are some proposals
that are still out there but none have been proven yet. Since stellar black holes are formed from
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collapsed stars scientist thought once that supermassive black holes were formed from
supermassive stars. Unfortunately they realized that the supermassive star would not be able to
contain itself. The most common theory is that the supermassive black holes were formed by
black holes and stars combining over time to form supermassive ones. The one big hole in this
theory is that if that were true, black holes in between those two sizes should have been detected
already. This has not happened yet. Another theory is that supermassive black holes were formed
during the big bang. This theory is a little foggy because of the conditions that would have to be
met at that certain point in time. So far no one knows why supermassive black holes are in the
center of every galaxy. Speaking of galaxies, one should wonder about the nearest neighbor to
the Milky Way galaxy since it is getting a little too close for comfort.
The closest galaxy to us is called Andromeda, but recently scientists have noticed that it
has been getting a little too close. They have predicted that in four billion years the Milky Way
will collide with the Andromeda galaxy that is moving towards the Milky Way at 402,000
kilometers per hour. Scientists found this out by using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope to
measure the motion of Andromeda. "After nearly a century of speculation about the future
destiny of Andromeda and our Milky Way, we at last have a clear picture of how events will
unfold over the coming billions of years." (Sangmo Tony) This sounds like a horrific event but
most likely our solar system will survive and just get flung to a different part of the Milky Way.
The distance that our solar system will get thrown to could be up to 160,000 light years away.
This of course is all because of the supermassive black holes pulling each other towards one
another. After the two galaxies collide, 2 billion years later they will combine into one galaxy.
By the time this all happens humans will probably either all be extinct, since our sun by that time
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would have expanded enough to roast earth’s surface, or would have moved on to another galaxy
or solar system using future technology. That future technology also involves black holes.
When a black hole is pulling matter inside of it, it sometimes has random bursts of energy
called quasars. Previously scientists thought that quasars were isolated star objects of an
unknown nature. When Hubble arrived scientists found out that quasars all reside in galactic
centers such as galaxies and black holes also reside in the center of galaxies which led to them
thinking black holes emit them. Scientists have been studying the amounts of energy that comes
out of certain black holes and have been brainstorming what they could somehow do with it.
They believe that in the future we could make a mini artificial black hole in a controlled
environment. Then they would capture the energy that it releases to use for the ultimate source of
energy. “The micro-black hole could also be used as a power generator capable of transforming
any matter directly into energy.” (Ryan Anderson) Of course this will be in the far future because
our technology today is not capable of completing this task. Even so scientists still believe that
this could happen. The best part of this is the fact that we can use this energy for space travel. To
travel to Mars takes about 7 months which a human can probably accomplish. The one problem
is that NASA doesn’t have enough fuel to bring that human back. This issue could be solved if
we use the black hole energy instead. I imagine it would be more environmental friendly as well
because there would be no burning involved so no greenhouse gases would get into the ozone.
This energy would most likely also increase our speed of getting to places as well. Just imagine
traveling to Mars in one hour! Even more so, imagine traveling to a different galaxy. This could
all be accomplished if scientists figure out to create artificial black holes in a controlled
environment.
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In conclusion, black holes affect the galaxy of the Milky Way in more ways than one
would think. Understanding these effects, it is easier to imagine what can happen in the future if
scientists find a way to create an artificial black hole. Right now if someone goes to Block Buster
or Netflix they will see Star Wars under the science fiction section, but maybe in the near future
they might have to move it to the science section.
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Works Cited
1.Anderson, Ryan. "Black Hole Drive Could Power Future Starships." Universe Today
RSS. N.p., 19 Nov. 2009. Web. 27 Apr. 2014.
2. "Astronomers Predict Titanic Collision: Milky Way vs. Andromeda - NASA Science."
Astronomers Predict Titanic Collision: Milky Way vs. Andromeda - NASA Science. N.p.,
31 May 2012. Web. 27 Apr. 2014.
3. “Black Holes.” World of Physics. Gale, 2010. Science in context. Web. 24 Mar. 2014
4. Brain, Marshall. “What If We Were next to a Black Hole?” HowStuffWorks.com, 02
Jan. 2008. Web. 24 Mar. 2014
5. Black Hole Drive Could Power Future Starships." Universe Today RSS. N.p., n.d.
Web. 25 Mar. 2014.
6. "Black Holes - NASA Science." Black Holes - NASA Science. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Mar.
2014.
7. Freudenrich, Ph.D. Craig. "How Black Holes Work." HowStuffWorks.
HowStuffWorks.com, 26 Nov. 2006. Web. 27 Apr. 2014.
8. Howell, Elizabeth. "Monster Black Hole Is Biggest Ever Found." Space.com. N.p., 28
Nov. 2012. Web. 27 Apr. 2014
9. Than, Ker. "Every Black Hole Contains Another Universe?" National Geographic, 9
Apr. 2010. Web. 25 Mar. 2014.