What is a Black Hole? How are they created? How big are they? What would happen if you fell into one? These are just some of the questions that people ask constantly, in reference to these enigmas of space. To understand whether or not the Large Hadron Collider would have the capability to destroy the planet and the solar system by creating a ‘Black Hole’, you first have to understand how Black Holes work, how they operate.
So, to deal with the first question, what is a Black Hole? It is an object that contains more Mass, and Density in a particular part of space than any other object known. Any objects that fall into a Black Hole, cannot escape the hole’s gravitational pull, and are, inevitably, sucked in, never to be seen again. Einstein’s Theory of Relativity is the best theory we have at the moment, in understanding Black Holes and how they work.
In order to understand the objects better, let us look at the Theory of Relativity in detail. You throw a rock, from the surface of a planet, up into the air. Ok, so if you don’t throw it too hard it will continue to rise for a bit. Eventually, gravity will take hold, the object will slow down and begin to plummet back down. But, think on this, if you threw the rock hard enough, you could make it escape from the gravity of the planet, entirely. The stone would keep rising forever, with nothing to bring it back down. The speed in which one would have to throw a stone, in order for it to escape the gravity of a planet is called, Escape Velocity.
The Escape Velocity depends entirely on the planet’s ‘Mass’. It stands to reason that if the planet is a giant, then the gravity would be very very strong, and so if the planet was smaller, obviously the gravity would be weaker. On a giant planet, the Escape Velocity
would be greater, and you would have to throw the stone harder. A smaller planet would have, to a lesser degree, a lighter Escape Velocity.
The Escape Velocity of a planet also depends on how far, or near away from the centre of that planet you are. The closer you are to the centre, the higher the Escape Velocity would be, and vice versa. For example, the Escape Velocity of Planet Earth, is 11.2 kilometres per second. {That is approximately 25-26,000mpm}. In comparasion, the Moon’s Escape Velocity is only 2.4 kilometres as second, {which works out as 5300 mph}.
So, you can see the difference right away. It does not take long to work out that if you could imagine an object, with a mass that was enormous, a sort of ‘concentration of Mass’, within a small radius, and the Escape Velocity was greater than then the Velocity of Light, since we know that nothing is faster than light, and nothing can escape the planet’s gravitational field, then even light {because of the density, and the greater Mass upon the planet}, would be pulled back. Light would not be able to escape.
Gravity is a manifestation of the curveature of spacetime. The bigger an object is, the more spacetime is distorted. This means that the usual rules of geometry do not apply. If these objects were near black holes, then the distortion would be very severe indeed. This would cause the Black Hole to have some very peculiar anomalies.
An ‘Event Horizon’, is something that is peculiar to Black Holes. The surface is spherical which marks the boundary of black holes. Imagine passing through the horizon, but not being able to get back out? That is how it works. In fact, once the horizon is crossed, you are then doomed to follow a particular path, closer and closer to the singularity of the Black Hole itself.
Think of it like this, as the place where the Escape Velocity equals the Velocity of Light. Outside, of the horizon, the Escape Velocity is less than the speed of light. If you have rockets powerful enough, when you are on the outside of the horizon, then you could escape. But, inside the horizon, no matter how powerful your rocket engines are, you would never be able to escape.
The horizon has some very very strange geometrical properties. For example, if you where sitting far away, still somewhere, gazing at the horizon, it would appear to you, the observer, to be a nice static none-moving spherical surface. Apperances can be deceptive of course, get closer and you will find that it has a very large velocity. The truth of the matter is, that it is moving outward, at the speed of light. It is therefore easier to cross the horizon in the inward direction but impossible to escape from once you have crossed it. In order to escape from it you would have to be moving faster than the speed of light, and we all know that is impossible, so therefore you cannot escape from a Black Hole.
We come to our second question, how are Black Holes created? The answer to that is the stars, literally. For instance, our sun is a star, it is the nearest star to us, yet there are stars out in space, that are far bigger, hotter, and weigh much more than our own sun. Only massive stars {our sun is classed as a medium sized star}, would turn into Black Holes. How does this occur? Again, the answer is in the stars. When a star turns supernova it normally goes through a brief phase as a Red Giant.
During this phase, it will expand to swallow up any planets within its path. For instance, our sun has another five billion years to go before it itself becomes a Red Giant. But, if our sun ever did become a ‘Black Hole’, life on Earth would become very very uncomfortable. For instance, it would become very dark and very cold. After our sun has exploded, our Earth would not be sucked into a Black Hole, rather it would continue to orbit around the star, much like before, in the exact same path that the Earth has always had. Why would this happen? Simple, because the horizon of this Black Hole would be very very small – about 3-4 kilometers. As you have already read, if you stay well outside of the horizon you are safe. The gravity of a Black Hole is no greater than that of any other object of the same Mass.
How big are Black Holes? Well, there are at least two ways to describe how big something is. The first way is to find out how much ‘Mass’ it holds. Or, the other way is to find out how much space it takes up. To answer the first question, there is no limit to how much Mass, or how little a Black Hole can contain. Any sort of Mass at all – in principle – can be made to form a Black Hole, if you compress it to a very high density.
So, you are in your ship and are heading toward a Black Hole. Let us say that this hole is a million-solar-mass, you turn off your engines and head in. There is no gravitational force on you or your ship, as you are in free fall, floating. Every part of your body, and your ship, is floating, being pulled in the same way. You would feel weightlessness, the same weightlessness that happens to astronauts in Earth Orbit.
As you get closer to the centre, you would begin to feel very uncomfortable. You would begin to feel ‘Tidal Gravitational Forces’ upon your body. The closer you get to the centre, the stronger the forces become, until you begin to feel ‘stretched’. This type of force is called the ‘Tidal Force’, because this is exactly the force that moves the seas and oceans and creates the tides on Earth. The closer you get, the more intense these forces become on your body, eventually ripping you apart, as well as your ship.
If the Black hole is a very large one, like the one you are falling into, images will look distorted to you in strange ways. Because the Black Hole’s gravity bends the light, this is why images will look out of place, disjointed and distorted. But, other than that, nothing particularly special will be happening at the moment you cross the horizon, or even after you have crossed it. Light still reaches you, which means that you can still see things on the outside. Of course, no one on the outside can see you, because the light from you cannot escape the horizon.
How long does the whole process take? Well, that depends on how far away you start from the centre. For a million-solar-black hole, it would take you about eight minutes to reach the horizon. Once you are that far in, another seven seconds will pass before you hit the singularity. No matter how much you begin to panic and hit the button to fire the rockets, in a desperate attempt to get away, you are doomed. In fact the more you fire your rockets the sooner you get to the centre, no matter how hard you try not to. It is a hopeless case, as the Singularity lies in your future, and you cannot escape the future, as much as we may want to. Just sit back, and enjoy what is left of your life, and enjoy the ride.
So you see, if the Large Hadron Collider went wrong, as it has the potential to do, it can indeed create a Black Hole. Interesting to note, as a side issue, that the effects of the experiment will not be known for another four years, as all the information gathered has to be looked at very carefully indeed. But, when was the last time you ever trusted a scientist, scientists in fact, that to my mind, are trying to play at being God?
This four year period takes us to 2012. The Mayan calender ends abruptly at 2012, there is no other year after that. Could the end of the world be caused by Man’s meddling of Nature, the use of this machine causing, within four years, causing a rip upon the Earth in which light will escape to. That rip becoming larger and larger, thereby creating a Black Hole big enough to destroy the whole planet and all life upon it? And all of this because of the need to find out what went on in directly after the ‘Big Bang’? I will leave you to ponder on that note.
