Black holes a connundrum.

[kirinke]

Basically blackholes are rips in space. We can't see the singularity because light can escape the gravitational vacume. (I'm drastically simplifing things yes, my quantom mechanics are slim 2 none &)&)

right. ok.

Maybe the reason why we can't 'see' the singularity in black holes is because they are so far red-shifted they appear invisible to us. just a thought. comments from more quantomly minded folks?

 

[Crothian]

I don't recall what we use to detect Black holes, but I'm sure it isn't infra red (i think that's the term of what you are referring to).

 

[Umbran]

Okay, this isn't a quantum mechanics thing. It is still in realm of classical physics. Gravitational redshift is not a quantum phenomenon.

In a way, what you suggest is exactly what happens. But it isn't just "so far red shifted they appear invisible to us". It is more like "red-shifted all the way to zero."

Let us say you take a space ship, and hover some distance away from a black hole. Then, you drop a light source. As it falls, the light coming from it will be shifted farther and farther into the red, infrared, and below, until you could no longer detect it. When it reaches the "event horizon" the light is infinitely red-shifted. Which is the same as saying it can no longer escape the black hole at all.

 

[Umbran]

I don't recall what we use to detect Black holes, but I'm sure it isn't infra red (i think that's the term of what you are referring to).

It isn't infrared, no. The matter that usually falls into a black hole is gaseous. As the gas falls in it compresses, and it's particles rub against each other, producing huge amounts of heat. Enough heat for the gas to glow in the X-ray spectrum. We generally detect them from these high-energy emissions from outside the hole.

 

[RangerWickett]

Yeah, that's how I always detect my black holes.

 

[Angcuru]

I just use my trusty Belgian Waffle Iron of Black Hole Detection. :\

 

[Femerus the Gnecro]

I just use my trusty Belgian Waffle Iron of Black Hole Detection. :\

Thank god for "craft wonderous item."

 

[kirinke]

err no. what i mean by red-shifted is that the wave-lengths get longer and longer. yes? When the light-waves get trapped by the black-hole, the gravity stretches the waves and the wave-lengths get longer and longer so you don't see them.

think of a slinky getting un-slinkied.

am i on the right track here?

 

[BrooklynKnight]

Sorta.
Its belived once something crosses the black hole its particles becomes streched out in a line with infinite length...

This includes energywave lengths.

 

[Umbran]

am i on the right track here?

Yes, but you're stopping too early. You're talking about a "dim hole", as if it was actually still giving off a little light, but we just can't see it. But black holes really are truly black. What happens in a black hole is stretching the slinky until it is a flat wire, and there are no more waves at all. If there are no waves, there's no energy leaving the hole itself.

The basic idea is that it isn't merely red-shifting to the point where we can't see it. It is redshifting to the point where the light ceases to exist!