this post was submitted on 20 Oct 2023
383 points (98.0% liked)

xkcd

8841 readers
7 users here now

A community for a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

https://xkcd.com/2844

Alt text:

Created by the collapse of: [massive stars] [Florida limestone bedrock]

top 16 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 53 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Don’t mean to be too technical but would the Big Bang be indirectly responsible for the formation of regular holes?

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

Came here for this. Otherwise solid list

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago

If "Indirectly" is an allowed answer, as demonstrated by the answers after "Precious Metals", then the answer to "Are regular holes created by the Big Bang?" is not "No."

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago

'Created by LHC' is the best one here

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Kid playing in the sand on a beach, screaming: "Moooom! I accidentally made a black hole again! Heeeeeelp!"

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Falling into a black hole is almost always fatal.

Almost??

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago

Happened to me last Tuesday and I'm still alive.
But I admit I got lucky with the angle, and the cats.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's entirely possible to live inside the event horizon. "Falling" is a problematic word.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I think you get spaghettified inside the event horizon?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Only if the tidal forces are large enough. For a small black hole, the tidal forces will kill you before you reach the EH.

See here for speculation on civilizations inside a massive black hole: https://www.academia.edu/10665641/Is_there_life_inside_black_holes

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

did hawking really argue that all infomation in black holes is lost forever? what about the hawking radiation? idk im not really into physics

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

For a long time, it was believed that Hawking radiation is thermal and doesn't carry information, except for the mass/radius/temperature of the black hole.

In 2004, Hawking conceded that, due to the holographic principle, information wasn't lost. The basic idea is that the infalling matter can gravitationally deform the horizon and thus modify the distribution of Hawking radiation from the pure thermal emission. And the interesting point is that the entropy of the black hole is proportional to its area and not its volume (holography), so the deformation of the horizon is sufficient to recover all the "missing" information.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Look up hairy black holes. Hawking basically pointed out a paradox.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Falling in is only "definitely fatal" if it's too big. For all we know, black holes can be tiny and light. We can debate if you can still "fall in" one of those. Maybe the process is more like passing by, or some mote of dust sticking to your clothes.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago