School encyclopedia. The first practical proof of the existence of black holes

Both for scientists of past centuries and for researchers of our time, the greatest mystery of the cosmos is the black hole. What's inside this completely unfamiliar system to physics? What laws apply there? How does time pass in a black hole, and why can’t even light quanta escape from there? Now we will try, of course, from the point of view of theory and not practice, to understand what is inside a black hole, why it, in principle, was formed and exists, how it attracts the objects that surround it.

First, let's describe this object

So, a black hole is a certain region of space in the Universe. It is impossible to single it out as a separate star or planet, since it is neither a solid nor a gaseous body. Without a basic understanding of what spacetime is and how these dimensions can change, it is impossible to comprehend what is inside a black hole. The point is that this area is not just a spatial unit. which distorts both the three dimensions we know (length, width and height) and the timeline. Scientists are confident that in the horizon region (the so-called area surrounding the hole), time takes on a spatial meaning and can move both forward and backward.

Let's learn the secrets of gravity

If we want to understand what's inside a black hole, let's take a closer look at what gravity is. It is this phenomenon that is key in understanding the nature of the so-called “wormholes”, from which even light cannot escape. Gravity is the interaction between all bodies that have a material basis. The strength of such gravity depends on the molecular composition of bodies, on the concentration of atoms, as well as on their composition. The more particles collapse in a certain area of space, the more gravitational force. This is inextricably linked with Theory big bang, when our Universe was the size of a pea. This was a state of maximum singularity, and as a result of a flash of light quanta, space began to expand due to the fact that particles repelled each other. Scientists describe a black hole exactly the opposite. What is inside such a thing in accordance with the TBZ? A singularity that is equal to the indicators inherent in our Universe at the moment of its birth.

How does matter get into a wormhole?

There is an opinion that a person will never be able to understand what is happening inside a black hole. Because once there, he will be literally crushed by gravity and the force of gravity. In fact, this is not entirely true. Yes, indeed, a black hole is a region of singularity where everything is compressed to the maximum. But this is not at all a “space vacuum cleaner” that can suck in all the planets and stars. Any material object that finds itself on the event horizon will observe a strong distortion of space and time (for now, these units stand separately). The Euclidean system of geometry will begin to malfunction, in other words, they will intersect, and the outlines of stereometric figures will no longer be familiar. As for time, it will gradually slow down. The closer you get to the hole, the slower the clock will go relative to Earth time, but you won't notice it. When falling into a wormhole, the body will fall at zero speed, but this unit will be equal to infinity. curvature, which equates the infinite to zero, which finally stops time in the region of singularity.

Reaction to emitted light

The only object in space that attracts light is a black hole. What is inside it and in what form it is there is unknown, but it is believed that it is pitch darkness, which is impossible to imagine. Light quanta, getting there, do not simply disappear. Their mass is multiplied by the mass of the singularity, which makes it even larger and increases it. Thus, if inside the wormhole you turn on a flashlight to look around, it will not glow. The emitted quanta will constantly multiply by the mass of the hole, and you, roughly speaking, will only worsen your situation.

Black holes at every step

As we have already figured out, the basis of formation is gravity, the magnitude of which there is millions of times greater than on Earth. An accurate idea of what a black hole is was given to the world by Karl Schwarzschild, who, in fact, discovered the very event horizon and the point of no return, and also established that zero in a state of singularity is equal to infinity. In his opinion, a black hole can form at any point in space. In this case, a certain material object having a spherical shape must reach the gravitational radius. For example, the mass of our planet must fit into the volume of one pea in order to become a black hole. And the Sun should have a diameter of 5 kilometers with its mass - then its state will become singular.

The horizon for the formation of a new world

The laws of physics and geometry work perfectly on earth and in outer space, where space approaches a vacuum. But they completely lose their significance on the event horizon. That is why, from a mathematical point of view, it is impossible to calculate what is inside a black hole. The pictures that you can come up with if you bend space in accordance with our ideas about the world are probably far from the truth. It has only been established that time here turns into a spatial unit and, most likely, some more are added to the existing dimensions. This makes it possible to believe that inside a black hole (a photo, as you know, will not show this, since the light there eats itself) completely different worlds are formed. These Universes may be composed of antimatter, which is currently unknown to scientists. There are also versions that the sphere of no return is just a portal that leads either to another world or to other points in our Universe.

Birth and death

Much more than the existence of a black hole is its creation or disappearance. A sphere that distorts space-time, as we have already found out, is formed as a result of collapse. This could be an explosion big stars, collision of two or more bodies in space, and so on. But how did matter that could theoretically be touched become a domain of time distortion? The puzzle is a work in progress. But it is followed by a second question - why do such spheres of no return disappear? And if black holes evaporate, then why doesn’t that light and all the cosmic matter that they sucked in come out of them? When matter in the singularity zone begins to expand, gravity gradually decreases. As a result, the black hole simply dissolves, and ordinary vacuum outer space remains in its place. Another mystery follows from this - where did everything that got into it go?

Is gravity our key to a happy future?

Researchers are confident that the energy future of humanity can be shaped by a black hole. What is inside this system is still unknown, but it has been established that at the event horizon any matter is transformed into energy, but, of course, partially. For example, a person, finding himself near the point of no return, will give up 10 percent of his matter for processing into energy. This figure is simply colossal; it became a sensation among astronomers. The fact is that on Earth, only 0.7 percent of matter is converted into energy.

Yes, they do exist. black hole is a region of space-time in which the gravitational field is so strong that even light cannot leave this region. This happens if the size of the body is less than its gravitational radius rg.

What is it?

Black holes must arise as a result of very strong mass compression, in which case the gravitational field increases so strongly that it does not release any light or any other radiation. To overcome gravity and escape from a black hole, it would take second escape velocity– more light. But, according to the theory of relativity, no body can reach a speed greater than the speed of light. Therefore, nothing can fly out of a black hole. Information cannot come from there either. It is impossible to know what happened to someone who fell into a black hole. Already near the holes, the properties of space and time change dramatically.

The theoretical possibility of the existence of such regions of space-time follows from some exact solutions of Einstein's equations. Simply put, Einstein predicted the amazing properties of black holes, of which the most important is the presence of an event horizon at a black hole. According to the latest observational data, black holes really exist and they have amazing properties. The existence of black holes follows from the theory of gravity: if this theory is true, then the existence of black holes is true. Therefore, statements about direct evidence of the existence of black holes should be understood in the sense of confirmation of the existence of astronomical objects that are so dense and massive, as well as having certain other observable properties, that they can be interpreted as black holes of general relativity. In addition, black holes are often called objects that do not strictly correspond to the definition given above, but only approach such a black hole in their properties - for example, these can be collapsing stars in the late stages of collapse.

Non-rotating black hole

For a non-rotating black hole, the radius of the event horizon coincides with the gravitational radius. At the event horizon, for an external observer, the passage of time stops. Spacecraft, sent towards a black hole, from the point of view of a distant observer, will never cross the event horizon, but will continuously slow down as it approaches it. Everything that happens below the event horizon, inside the black hole, is not visible to an external observer. An astronaut in his ship is, in principle, able to penetrate under the event horizon, but he will not be able to transmit any information to an external observer. At the same time, an astronaut freely falling below the event horizon will likely see another Universe and even his own future. This is due to the fact that inside a black hole, space and time coordinates are reversed, and travel in space is replaced by travel in time.

Rotating black hole

Its properties are even more amazing. Their event horizon has a smaller radius, it is immersed inside the ergosphere - such a region of space-time in which bodies must continuously move, caught by the vortex gravitational field rotating black hole.
These unusual properties of black holes seem simply fantastic, so their existence in nature is often questioned.

Black hole in a binary star system

In this case, the effects of a black hole are most pronounced, because in double star system one star is a bright giant, and the second is a black hole. Gas from the shell of the giant star flows towards the black hole and swirls around it, forming a disk. Layers of gas in the disk in spiral orbits approach the black hole and fall into it. But before falling near the boundary of the black hole, the gas is heated by friction to an enormous temperature of millions of degrees and emits in the X-ray range. This X-ray emission is used to identify black holes in binary star systems.

Conclusion

It is assumed that massive black holes arise in the centers of compact star clusters. Perhaps the X-ray source in the constellation Cygnus, Cygnus X-1, is such a black hole.

Astronomers do not rule out that in the past black holes could have arisen at the beginning of the expansion of the Universe, so the formation of very small black holes is not excluded.

Mass values of large numbers neutron stars and black holes confirm the validity of the predictions of A. Einstein’s theory of relativity. IN recent years the problem of the hypothesis of black holes in the Universe has become an observational reality. This means quality new stage in research of black holes and their amazing properties, there is hope for new discoveries in this area.

What is it?

Non-rotating black hole

For a non-rotating black hole, the radius of the event horizon coincides with the gravitational radius. At the event horizon, for an external observer, the passage of time stops. A spacecraft sent towards a black hole, from the point of view of a distant observer, will never cross the event horizon, but will continuously slow down as it approaches it. Everything that happens below the event horizon, inside the black hole, is not visible to an external observer. An astronaut in his ship is, in principle, able to penetrate under the event horizon, but he will not be able to transmit any information to an external observer. At the same time, an astronaut freely falling below the event horizon will likely see another Universe and even his own future. This is due to the fact that inside a black hole, space and time coordinates are reversed, and travel in space is replaced by travel in time.

Rotating black hole

Its properties are even more amazing. Their event horizon has a smaller radius, it is immersed inside the ergosphere - a region of space-time in which bodies must continuously move, caught in the vortex gravitational field of a rotating black hole.
These unusual properties of black holes seem simply fantastic, so their existence in nature is often questioned.

Black hole in a binary star system

In this case, the effects of a black hole are most pronounced, because In a binary star system, one star is a bright giant and the other is a black hole. Gas from the shell of the giant star flows towards the black hole and swirls around it, forming a disk. Layers of gas in the disk in spiral orbits approach the black hole and fall into it. But before falling near the boundary of the black hole, the gas is heated by friction to an enormous temperature of millions of degrees and emits in the X-ray range. This X-ray emission is used to identify black holes in binary star systems.

Conclusion

It is assumed that massive black holes arise in the centers of compact star clusters. Perhaps the X-ray source in the constellation Cygnus, Cygnus X-1, is such a black hole.

Astronomers do not rule out that in the past black holes could have arisen at the beginning of the expansion of the Universe, so the formation of very small black holes is not excluded.

The masses of a large number of neutron stars and black holes confirm the validity of the predictions of A. Einstein's theory of relativity. In recent years, the problem of the black hole hypothesis in the Universe has become an observational reality. This means a qualitatively new stage in the research of black holes and their amazing properties, and there is hope for new discoveries in this area.

From the moment when the theory of black holes was formulated by the power of the collective mind of brilliant scientists around the world, the very possibility of the existence of indistinguishable outer space gravitational traps excited the minds of scientists. Until recently, it was believed that black holes are staunch loners, unable to coexist peacefully with their fellows, but the discovery of an ancient star cluster, incredible from the point of view of astrophysics, which includes hundreds of black holes, has fundamentally refuted this idea.

Black holes have gained fame as one of the most controversial and mysterious objects in the Universe. These incredibly massive space monsters, which do not let even light out of their tenacious gravitational tentacles, are almost impossible to detect, and therefore impossible to explore. A black hole becomes “visible” only when it selects and absorbs its next victim. It is at this moment that anomalous behavior of stars and interstellar matter is observed, accompanied by bursts of gravitational waves and powerful X-ray radiation, making it possible to detect a hole.

STEP BEYOND THE EVENT HORIZON

To this day, astrophysicists have not been able to come to a consensus regarding the nature of black holes. According to one of the popular theories, during a supernova explosion, that is, the death of a fairly massive star, gravitational compression reaches such proportions that the matter of the dead star begins to collapse, contract towards the center, forming a point of such high density and mass that all the laws of physics inside it are canceled . A singularity is formed capable of force The gravitational influence alone not only absorbs matter caught in the area of attraction, but also bends the surrounding space and changes the very flow of time. That is why one of the generally accepted definitions today describes a black hole as an incredibly dense region of space-time, possessing such a powerful gravitational attraction that not a single particle can escape beyond its limit, called the event horizon.

As already mentioned, scientists are able to judge the processes occurring in black holes only by the state of radiation of objects absorbed by the holes, while at rest these superdense bodies lurking in the depths of space remain completely indistinguishable to the observer. The first evidence of the existence of black holes was obtained through the observation of the rotation of luminous disks of heated gases and “dancing” stars, which, for no apparent reason, began to rapidly spin in elongated orbits around a seemingly empty region of space.

Modern science does not know of another such object capable of spinning, heating, grinding and turning unimaginable masses of matter inside out. It is supermassive black holes that lurk in the hearts of galaxies and, perhaps, the brightest objects in the Universe - quasars.

However, the origin of black holes is worthy of a separate, more careful consideration, especially since scientists have not been able to shed light on all the details of this process. Today, researchers cannot even come to a consensus about what black holes actually are. black hole- an isolated object, an endlessly collapsing star, or a special region of space. Moreover: astrophysicists do not have indisputable evidence of the very existence of objects endowed with the properties of black holes, since it directly depends on the correctness of the postulates modern theory gravity. But, as practice shows, human ideas about the laws of the Universe is not an authority for black holes.

HUNDREDS OF BLACK HOLES IN THE BIRD OF PARADISE CONSTELLATION

Early this fall, researchers from the University of Surrey () announced the discovery of an incredible concentration of hundreds of black holes in the globular star cluster NGC 6101 from the constellation Bird of Paradise, from an astrophysical point of view. We agree that the discovery of a group of “social” black holes is unlikely to make a proper impression on a person far from science, but for scientists this discovery was truly shocking.

According to the traditional view, numerous clusters of black holes can arise in systems that include large number massive stars located at a relatively small distance from each other by cosmic standards and formed at approximately the same time. Due to the large concentration of stars belonging to the same “generation” and approximately the same speed of movement of system elements in space in such clusters, the process of transformation of massive stars into supernovae occurs almost synchronously, which leads to the ejection of gases and black holes outside the cluster. But the formation in the Bird of Paradise constellation seems unwilling to fit into the standard model.

It turns out that globular star clusters like NGC 6101 can contain hundreds of stellar-mass black holes, although not without consequences for the structure of the formation itself.

YOUNG “OUTcasts”

The detection of black holes in distant regions was made possible by a 2013 discovery in which astronomers were able to detect the presence of a hole by the radiation emitted during its “meal”, when a companion star gave up its matter to the black hole. In the case of NGC 6101, the attention of astrophysicists was attracted, in particular, by the similar behavior of stars and the presence large quantity so-called rogue stars. In standard globular clusters, the vast majority of stars are distributed closer to the center of the formation, but in the Bird of Paradise cluster the opposite pattern is observed.

“Black holes cannot be seen through a telescope, since photons simply physically cannot escape from them,” says one of the authors of the discovery, Miklos Poyten. “In order to find these objects, we had to observe how their attraction affects the behavior of visible matter around them. Observations of these effects and calculations have helped us understand where black holes are, and thus find what cannot be seen."

BNGC61Q1, many stars are located on the periphery of the system, while the standard model of a globular cluster, as we already know, requires that the concentration of stars from the center to the outskirts steadily decreases. The atypically small number of stars in the center of the cluster indicates a high percentage of the presence of “rogue” stars, carried by external forces from the areas of space where they were formed. The appearance of “rogues” indicates the presence of powerful gravitational fields: the impact from a source invisible to the naked eye forces stars to leave their usual habitats and set off along an unstable trajectory, replenishing the reserves of matter to support nuclear fusion at the expense of the energy of other stars.

This scattered type of distribution of normal stars and “rogue” stars is most typical for young star clusters, although the age of the region under study is about 13 billion years.

Having studied the location of the blue ones torn from their native regions<изгоев» по отношению к нормальным звёздам, астрофизики построили гипотетическую модель перемещения звезд Б системе за период её существования. Согласно полученным в ходе моделирования данным, подобная организация звёздного скопления возможна лишь в том случае, если NGC населена невероятным количеством чёрных дыр небольшой массы, которые силой своего воздействия перераспределяют объекты в скоплении» Кроме того, скорости перемещения блуждающих объектов указывают на то, что в NGC 6101 соседствуют звёзды как минимум двух поколений, что, как выяснилось, является частным проявлением воздействия сил притяжения.

This discovery led to the conclusion that such clusters of black holes not only exist, which fundamentally refutes previously obtained calculations, but they are also the main “factories” for the production of black holes.

FURTHER PROSPECTS

The main value of the discovery by the University of Surrey employees is not simply the fact of the reality of the existence of groups of black holes that were able to withstand the power of supernova explosions without being scattered throughout observable space. And it’s not even a unique opportunity to study the dynamics of the life cycle of stars and atypical globular clusters.

The Hubble Space Telescope has provided, perhaps for the first time, clear evidence of the existence of black holes. He observed the disappearance of matter falling into the zone of action of a black hole, beyond the so-called “event horizon.”

Observed faint pulses of light from streams of hot gas in the ultraviolet spectrum faded and then disappeared, forming a swirl around a massive, compact object called Cygnus XR-1. This falling mechanism, similar, for example, to water falling at the edge of a waterfall, corresponds to a clear analogy with theoretical calculations of matter falling into a black hole.

The event horizon is a region of space surrounding a black hole, once in which matter will never be able to leave this region and will fall into the black hole. Light can still overcome the enormous force of gravity and send out the last streams from the disappearing matter, but only for a short period of time, until the falling matter falls into the so-called singularity zone, beyond which even light can no longer go.

According to well-known theories, no other astronomical object except a black hole can have an event horizon zone.

Black holes were identified by observing patterns of the absorption (flow) of masses of stellar gas into them. By estimating how much mass goes into a tiny region of space, we can determine how much space the black hole takes up and its mass.

No one has ever seen matter that has already entered the event horizon fall into a black hole. Typically, a picture of a simple flow of matter from a star neighboring the black hole was observed. At the same time, the black hole was completely spherically enveloped in a mass of flowing gas and itself resembled in appearance a small star, but emitting light in a spectrum close to ultraviolet or in neutrons.

This secret was hidden from the public for quite a long time. Scientists were engaged in meticulous analysis and verification of this data.

Hubble himself, of course, did not see the event horizon zone - this is too small a region of space at such a distance to be appreciated. Hubble measured chaotic fluctuations in ultraviolet light from boiling gas trapped in the black hole's gravitational influence. Hubble captured unique moments of "decayed pulse trains" that weakened very quickly.

This mechanism is consistent with the generally accepted theory predicted by scientists: when matter falls close to the event horizon, its light quickly dims because the closer to the center of the black hole, the stronger the gravitational force and the longer the waves become, gradually moving from the ultraviolet spectrum to neutron, and then completely disappear. This effect is called "red shift".

The observed fragment of falling material disappeared from the Hubble telescope's field of view before it actually reached the event horizon. Hubble's fast photometer samples light pulses at a rate of 100,000 measurements per second. Hubble's ultraviolet resolution allowed the faint flicker of falling material to be seen within 1,000 miles of the event horizon.

Dynamical models have previously predicted that Cygnus XR-1's is a black hole. Gas cannot directly fall into it, like into a ditch, but forms a vortex in the form of a flattened spiral disk.