The Search for Black Holes: Both As A Concept And An Understanding For ages
people have been determined to explicate on everything. Our search for
explanation rests only when there is a lack of questions. Our skies hold
infinite quandaries, so the quest for answers will, as a result, also be
infinite. Since its inception, Astronomy as a science speculated heavily upon
discovery, and only came to concrete conclusions later with closer inspection.
Aspects of the skies which at one time seemed like reasonable explanations
are now laughed at as egotistical ventures. Time has shown that as better
instrumentation was developed, more accurate understanding was attained. Now it
seems, as we advance on scientific frontiers, the new quest of the heavens is to
find and explain the phenomenom known as a black hole. The goal of this paper is
to explain how the concept of a black hole came about, and give some insight on
how black holes are formed and might be tracked down in our more technologically
advanced future.
Gaining an understanding of a black hole allows for a greater understanding
of the concept of spacetime and maybe give us a grasp of both science fiction
and science fact. Hopefully, all the clarification will come by the close of
this essay. A black hole is probably one of the most misunderstood ideas among
people outside of the astronomical and physical communities.
Before an understanding of how it is formed can take place, a bit of an
introduction to stars is necessary. This will shed light (no pun intended) on
the black hole philosophy. A star is an enormous fire ball, fueled by a nuclear
reaction at its core which produces massive amounts of heat and pressure. It is
formed when two or more enormous gaseous clouds come together which forms the
core, and as an aftereffect the conversion, due to that impact, of huge amounts
of energy from the two clouds.
The clouds come together with a great enough force, that a nuclear reaction
ensues. This type of energy is created by fusion wherein the atoms are forced
together to form a new one. In turn, heat in excess of millions of degrees
farenheit are produced. This activity goes on for eons until the point at which
the nuclear fuel is exhausted.
Here is where things get interesting. For the entire life of the star, the
nuclear reaction at its core produced an enormous outward force. Interestingly
enough, an exactly equal force, namely gravity, was pushing inward toward the
center. The equilibrium of the two forces allowed the star to maintain its shape
and not break away nor collapse. Eventually, the fuel for the star runs out, and
it this point, the outward force is overpowered by the gravitational force, and
the object caves in on itself.
This is a gigantic implosion. Depending on the original and final mass of the
star, several things might occur. A usual result of such an implosion is a star
known as a white dwarf. This star has been pressed together to form a much more
massive object. It is said that a teaspoon of matter off a white dwarf would
weigh 2-4 tons. Upon the first discovery of a white dwarf, a debate arose as to
how far a star can collapse. And in the 1920’s two leading astrophysicists,
Subrahmanyan Chandrasekgar and Sir Arthur Eddington came up with different
conclusions.
Chandrasekhar looked at the relations of mass to radius of the star, and
concluded an upper limit beyond which collapse would result in something called
a neutron star. This limit of 1.4 solar masses was an accurate measurement and
in 1983, the Nobel committee recognized his work and awarded him their prize in
Physics.
The white dwarf is massive, but not as massive as the next order of imploded
star known as a neutron star. Often as the nuclear fuel is burned out, the star
will begin to shed its matter in an explosion called a supernovae. When this
occurs the star loses an enormous amount of mass, but that which is left behind,
if greater than 1.4 solar masses, is a densely packed ball of neutrons. This
star is so much more massive that a teaspoon of it’s matter would weigh
somewhere in the area of 5 million tons in earth’s gravity.
