The Oracle’s Library uncovers the roots of the black hole theory. The black hole was once only a hypothetical idea inserted in Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity—an estimation of his calculation. Now it has become common astronomical knowledge that black holes exist in many forms in space and can even be found at the center of our own galaxy. But, how exactly do we know the black hole actually exists? Black holes were discovered quite recently through the invention of new technology and development of radio astronomy.

Black Holes and Radio Astronomy

In my experience, it is difficult to accept such theories unless you’ve ‘seen’ the facts. And in fact, the black hole can be ‘seen’ from the deepest regions of space through the detection of radio waves. This is done by using a radio telescope to scan the sky for a region rich with noise in the form of radio frequencies—commonly emitted by regions of space that possess black holes. However, there seems to be much speculation about the nature and true appearance of the black hole.

The Galactic Center of the Milky Way

In the past, many have set the mathematical framework behind black holes, so that they act as impossibly dense objects made up of three layers. There is an outer and inner event horizon and the singularity—a dense core from which no matter, not even light can escape. Thus, they are named black holes. But, the truth is, the black hole when viewed from afar is not black, at all. In fact, the Galactic Center of our own Milky Way Galaxy is one of the brightest areas of the night sky. Why is it that the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way appears so bright? For the same reason it emits such a noisy signal—it is so dense, that it is surrounded by a globular cluster of stars spiraling towards its singularity.

The Black Hole Enigma

Black Holes present a riddle for physicists in that the singularity is so dense it appears infinite—like a limitless dent in the fabric of space-time. It does not abide by the established, everyday rules of physics for this reason. The ‘point-break’ in which matter becomes so dense and compact that it becomes a black hole is named the Schwarzschild radius after the German physicist who added more calculations to Einstein’s general theory of relativity.

At the center of a black hole, the singularity deems the location or point in which no matter, not even light can escape such a tremendous gravitational pull. In the end, the black hole is still just a hypothetical object that holds an unimaginably hefty volume of mass in space—so much that it attracts all the stars in the galaxy! For this reason, we rightfully have theorized that each galaxy in the universe is held together by a super-massive black hole, since there is no other object capable of attracting such a widespread collection of stars. Mathematically, the black hole reminds us of the limit phi—to read more about phi check out The Golden Ratio and Harmonies of the Universe.

Thank you for reading at the Oracle’s Library! Share your thoughts with a comment on the mysterious black hole.

⚕Home⚕

photo credit: CHUCKage via photopin cc
photo credit: thebadastronomer via photopin cc