Understanding Black Holes

            Black holes in outer space are one of the most mysterious and misunderstood phenomenon in the universe today. It is the more we learn that makes us even more amazed about the mystery. Many assumptions and theories have evolved to describe their behaviors and reason for forming. However, there is still a lot that we do not know about them and scientists scour the universe for answers to explain their existence. One of the main reasons we have little information is because the nearest black hole is so far away that we have no way to get to it and properly study it. We only have evidence of these black holes from what we gather from current telescope technology. So theories have formed to explain these black holes in space but in realty no one knows for sure. Yet technology moves forward fast, and as we get these new advancements in technology, excitment grows for the answers to this secret riddle.

To first explain black holes and other unusual activity in space, Albert Einstein came up with the theory of relativity. In this theory, space and time are considered to both be together as one object. As he expanded on this theory, Einstein included gravity in spacetime. This mathematical concept introduced the idea spacetime must be curved and became known as general relativity. Einstein’s theory’s main concept states that all matter will bend or curve the space around its area. An object with a large mass will create a large curve or warp in spacetime as opposed to a smaller mass. Also, any object whether it is a planet or a star will change its course as it interacts with the warping of a larger mass in this theory.

To give an idea of what this is like, consider a faucet that was slowly dripping on a very thin piece of rubber. As every drop slowly gathered together, the thin rubber would start to sag down at the point where the water collected and its matter increased. Soon, the mass would become so heavy that it would cause the rubber to bend in and create a pool of water. In time the mass would become so dense that it would collapse in on itself and make the rubber dip down and create what would looked like a balloon that was filling up with water but still hooked up to the sink. As other objects or matter interacted with this curve or warp in the rubber it would alter the course in which it was traveling or end up trapped with the rest of the water.

Black holes are places in spacetime where the gravity is so strong that it collapses in on itself and prevents anything from escaping including any form of radiation like radio waves, visible light, or even X-rays. There is a point in the black hole that is called the event horizon where radiation is not allowed to get out. It defines the region within which no event can ever be seen, heard, or known by anyone outside (“Astronomy Today” 553).  This flow of energy that moves in one direction not only keeps all forms of radiation but also keeps the very own secrets to its mystery as well.

Black holes have a few different categories as with some being small and some being very large. Scientists think the smallest black holes are as small as just one atom. These black holes are very tiny but have the mass of a large mountain (“How Big Are Black Holes”). Stellar mass black holes can be up to twenty times the mass of the sun. The largest black holes are called “supermassive.” These black holes have masses that are more than one million suns together (“How Big Are Black Holes”).

Black holes have been predicted to form in a few different ways. Scientists think the smallest black holes formed when the universe began (“How Do Black Holes Form?”). Stellar black holes are thought to have formed when a star is close to dying and collapses in on its self. Scientists think supermassive black holes were made at the same time of the galaxy they are in (“How Do Black Holes Form?”). There is also the idea floating around that black holes could have formed from a high-energy collision that managed to create a certain density. Still, these are guesses and no one really knows for sure. It is just an attempt to explain the unexplainable.

However, technology advancements have given scientist new information, new ideas, and new hope on understanding the formation of black holes and how they play a part in our universe. One of the new advancement in understanding black holes is the NuSTAR telescope. NuSTAR (Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array) is the first telescope that can focus high energy X-rays. This new ability to focus X-rays in technology will allow images to be seen up to ten times clearer than any other images made in this part of the electromagnetic spectrum. Launched on the thirteenth of June in 2012, this satellite has just begun its journey to help us understand our universe. It has the ability to look right past dust clouds to find new galaxies and new black holes beyond what we can see in the visible light. Part of its mission is going to study how fast black holes are spinning which may give new insight and information on when and how black holes were formed.

NuSTAR’s first observation was to look at an area surrounding a supermassive black hole called Sagittarius A* which is found in the center of our very own Milky Way Galaxy. Scientists chose Sagittarius A* first because it was the biggest and brightest black hole energy that we can see. “We got lucky to have captured an outburst from the black hole during our observation campaign,” said Fiona Harrison, the mission’s principal investigator at The California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena. “These data will help us better understand the gentle giant at the heart of our galaxy and why it sometimes flares up for a few hours and then returns to slumber” (“Pointing the Telescope and Probing the X-ray Sky”).

One of the most recent discoveries as of the writings of this paper comes from a telescope called the Hobby-Eberly Telescope at the University of Texas as Austin’s McDonald Observatory. Astrophysicists there have found an amazingly huge black hole in the galaxy NGC 1277 that is about two-hundred twenty million light years away. Typically, supermassive black holes are only about point-one percent of the mass that a galaxy has in its stellar bulge, which is a collection of older stars near the center. The largest black hole recorded up until now was eleven percent of the galaxy’s mass. This is why astrophysicists were amazed when they found a black hole that has close to fifty-nine percent of the galaxy’s mass. What is also very interesting is that the galaxy that this black hole is in is considered to be a small galaxy. Until now, scientists thought the larger black holes were in the larger galaxies. This is what researchers were looking for and trying to prove as they looked at about eight hundred galaxies in the local universe. When these scientists first found this black hole they thought they had made a mistake saying, “We were looking at it and we said, “That’s got to be wrong,”” said study coauthor Karl Gebhardt, an astrophysicist at the University of Texas at Austin. “So we kind of analyzed it to death” (“Gargantuan black hole baffles scientists”). Black holes are believed to only grow at a certain pace. As objects enter a black hole only so much can be taken in and the rest is burned off in jets that shoot out from the center. If that is believed to be true, then something could be different with this gigantic supermassive black hole that allows it to keep growing. Scientists are now on the hunt to find more of these enormous black holes. They have found galaxies that have similar properties like NGC 1277 and are currently evaluating their black holes to determine its mass. Finding more of these gigantic supermassive black holes could result in a whole new category or class of black holes.

In conclusion, black holes are still one of the most intriguing riddles in the universe that scientists are on the move to solve. Many theories and attempts have formed to help explain black holes but the truth is that we really know very little about them. With new technology brings new inspiration and new hope in explaining the unexplainable. So we continue to wait in anticipation for the mystery to be solved.

Works Cited

Chaisson, Eric, Steve McMillian. Astronomy Today. San Francisco, CA: Pearson Addison-      Wesley, 2011. Print.

Khan, Amina. “Gargantuan black hole baffles scientists”. latimes.com. 28 Nov. 2012. Web. 2 Dec. 2012.

Nasa. “Pointing the Telescope and Probing the X-ray Sky”. NASA. 20 Nov. 2012. Web. 2 Dec. 2012.

Smith, Heather R. “How Big Are Black Holes.” NASA. NASA Educational Technology Services. Dec. 30, 2009. Web. 2 Dec, 2012.

Smith, Heather R. “How Do Black Holes Form?” NASA. NASA Educational Technology Services. n.d. Web. 2 Dec, 2012.