Hubble black hole. What does a black hole look like? Evaporation of black holes

The term "Black Hole" was first used in 1967 by John A. Wheeler. This is the name given to a region in space and time with gravity so strong that even quanta of light cannot leave its boundaries. The size is determined gravitational radius, and the action boundary is called the event horizon.

A black hole as imagined by an artist

Ideally, a black hole, provided it is isolated, is an absolutely black section of space. No one yet knows what a black hole actually looks like, all that is known is that it does not live up to its name, since it is completely invisible. According to scientists astronomers, its presence can only be determined by the glow in the area of ​​the event horizon. This happens for two reasons:

1. Particles of matter fall into it, the speed of which decreases as they approach the point of no return. They create an image of a diffuse gas and dust cloud, with increasing density inside.
2. Quanta of light passing near a black hole change their trajectory. This distortion is sometimes so great that the light bends around it several times before getting inside. This creates a ring of light.

According to astronomers, the all-consuming star is not shapeless at all, but looks like a crescent. This happens because the side facing the observer, for special cosmic reasons, is always brighter than the other side. The dark circle located in the center of the crescent is a black hole.

Emergence

There are two scenarios for occurrence: strong compression massive star, compression of the center of the galaxy or its gas. There are also hypotheses that they formed after Big Bang or arose as a result of the creation of enormous amounts of energy in a nuclear reaction.

Species

Jet in the M87 galaxy is a manifestation of the activity of a supermassive black hole at the galactic core

There are several main types: Supermassive - very large, often found in the center of galaxies; Primary - it is assumed that they could have appeared with large deviations in the uniformity of the gravitational field and density during the emergence of the Universe; Quantum - hypothetically arise when nuclear reactions and have microscopic dimensions.

The life of a black hole is not eternal

According to S. Hawking's assumption, it is limited to approximately 10 to the 60th power of years. The hole gradually “thinner” and leaves behind only elementary particles.

There is an assumption that there is also an antipode - white hole. If everything goes into the first and does not come out, then it is impossible to get into the second - it only releases. According to this theory, a white hole appears at short time and disintegrates, releasing energy and matter. Quite serious scientists believe that in this way a tunnel is created, with the help of which one can move enormous distances.

Popular science film about black holes

Malene Sommer Christiansen

An international team of scientists, which will likely include the Danes, intends to photograph the black hole to see what it looks like. Nothing like this had ever been done before.

If we can obtain images of a black hole, we will be closer to understanding the nature of this mysterious phenomenon, explains Uffe Gråe Jørgensen from the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen, who is currently working on including Denmark in the project.

“I think this is extremely interesting. It's always great to have the opportunity to test some theories, but now we're talking about about exceptional theories in connection with the behavior of light and matter in extreme conditions black hole,” says Uffe Grohe Jørgensen, lecturer in the Department of Astrophysics and Planetary Science.

Images of black holes could open up a new field of research

Photographing a black hole is not an easy task. This requires the right conditions, so scientists intend to use the new Greenland Telescope, which will be placed on the Greenland ice sheet.

If photographs of the black hole can be obtained, they could open up a completely new field of research, confirms Professor Ulrik Ingerslev Uggerhøj from the Institute of Physics and Astronomy at Aarhus University, who is not involved in the project.

“This will mark the beginning of the so-called physics of strong fields under the influence of gravity. Will open new area, reminiscent of the gravitational wave observations announced in February. If we can take a picture of a black hole, it will be the same breakthrough as gravitational waves", the professor comments.

Scientists helped simulate the black hole in Interstellar

Until now, black holes have been observed only through optical telescopes, which have not made it possible to study their structure. In these telescopes, black holes appear as a dark spot. So all that was previously seen was matter being swallowed up by the hole.

New submillimeter telescopes have so much high resolution, which make it possible to discern the structure of black holes, explains Uffe Grohe Jørgensen.

A submillimeter telescope has a wavelength of less than one millimeter. It is a cross between an optical and radio telescope. A submillimeter telescope can distinguish more than long waves than usual infrared radiation, but not as long as that of radio emission.

“This is a beautiful animation that has no analogues. Prominent scientists specializing in the problem of black holes participated in the creation of the film, so it was in their interests to create a correct picture. Everything probably looks exactly as it does in the film,” says Uffe Grohe Jørgensen.

The Greenland telescope will be used simultaneously with others

To photograph the black hole, the Greenland Telescope will be combined with telescopes in Chile and Hawaii. At the same time, all three telescopes will function as one large apparatus, the “diameter” of which corresponds to the distance between them, that is, several thousand kilometers.

So the choice of a telescope on the territory of Greenland is not accidental, the scientist explains.

“The object they target must be simultaneously observed from three different places, separated from each other by the greatest possible distance. Telescopes cannot be used in both the eastern and western directions. western hemispheres, because then you won’t be able to observe a point in the sky at the same time.”

The telescope will be placed on ice

The Greenland Telescope is currently on board a ship traveling from the United States to Qaanaaq in northern Greenland. The ship will arrive at the site during the summer, after which the telescope will be assembled and installed on highest point the surface of the Greenland glacier, where ideal weather and climatic conditions are observed.

“The Greenland telescope will be placed at an altitude of more than three kilometers. Many people think that where there is ice, there is a lot of water and, therefore, high humidity. Perhaps this idea is due to the fact that in Denmark we have exceptionally wet winters with temperatures around zero degrees and sleet. In fact, at -30 degrees it is very dry because all the water condenses and turns into snow. So this peak is great place, it is located on high altitude, and it’s very dry there.”

Images of black holes will appear only in a few years

The Greenland telescope won't be operational until 2017, but when it does we hope to learn a lot about black holes, says a Copenhagen-based teacher.

“We don’t know much about black holes, and we will work on it. What is their gravitational field? What happens to matter when it is pulled into a black hole? One of most interesting questions- this is whether large black holes in the center of galaxies can be a path to other universes or to other points in time-space. This is what we want to learn something new about. We're not going to start flying through black holes tomorrow, that's not the point. But in the long run our work will give a lot new information, which can lead us to places we have never been before.”

The Greenland telescope is not the only one that Danish scientists use to observe black holes. It is just part of a project called Event Horizon Telescope, which brings together nine telescopes, each of which performs the same tasks.

It doesn't matter which of them will have the honor of taking the first pictures of a black hole. But, according to Professor Ulrik Ingerslev Uggerhøy, the final choice will be made in the near future.

"It's just a question of how long we'll have to wait, but I think there's a good chance we'll see it in the next five years."

The project will inspire young Greenlanders

Observing black holes is not sole purpose project, continues Uffe Grohe Jørgensen.

"It's not just big science project, but also a great opportunity to try to influence Greenlandic society, awaken the interest of local youth in science, and inspire Greenland to develop high technology. This is a very important task."

Allan Finnich, Coordinator scientific research in the health sector at Mid-Greenland Grammar School, also believes that it is necessary to stimulate the interest of Greenlanders in science subjects.

“In many ways, it is necessary to increase interest in natural sciences. Greenland needs scientists in this field, and there are not very many of them. Now there is no opportunity to receive such an education in Greenland, you have to go to Denmark, which is also a hindrance.”

When a telescope is installed, 10% of the observing time is typically left to the host scientists. Scientists expect that Greenlandic high school students will also have this opportunity. But collaboration is not easy to achieve, and it is not yet clear what exactly the project will bring to Greenland.

Gymnasium teacher: we need more natural sciences

If Greenlandic students are allowed to use the telescope, there will undoubtedly be a lot of interest, says science coordinator Mathias Rosdal Jensen.

“I think it would be very interesting for students because it is about Greenland’s own product. There are now a lot of Danish or Danish-related educational materials in the country.”

Uffe Groe Jørgensen hopes the telescope will become a source of inspiration for young Greenlanders.

“The great goal of the telescope project is to develop interest and attract more young people into the sciences.”

Black holes, perhaps the most mysterious and enigmatic astronomical objects in our Universe, have been attracting the attention of scientists and exciting the imagination of science fiction writers since their discovery. What are black holes and what do they represent? Black holes are extinct stars, due to their physical features, possessing so much high density and such powerful gravity that even light cannot escape beyond them.

History of the discovery of black holes

For the first time, the theoretical existence of black holes, long before their actual discovery, was suggested by a certain D. Michel (an English priest from the county of Yorkshire, who is interested in astronomy in his spare time) back in 1783. According to his calculations, if we take ours and compress it (in modern terms) computer language- archive) up to a radius of 3 km, such a large (simply huge) gravitational force is formed that even light cannot leave it. This is how the concept of a “black hole” appeared, although in fact it is not black at all; in our opinion, the term “dark hole” would be more appropriate, because it is precisely the absence of light that takes place.

Later, in 1918, the great scientist Albert Einstein. But it was only in 1967, through the efforts of the American astrophysicist John Wheeler, that the concept of black holes finally won a place in academic circles.

Be that as it may, D. Michel, Albert Einstein, and John Wheeler in their works assumed only the theoretical existence of these mysterious celestial objects in outer space, but the real discovery of black holes took place in 1971, it was then that they were first noticed in telescope.

This is what a black hole looks like.

How black holes form in space

As we know from astrophysics, all stars (including our Sun) have some limited supply of fuel. And although the life of a star can last billions of light years, sooner or later this conditional supply of fuel comes to an end, and the star “goes out”. The process of a star’s “fading” is accompanied by intense reactions, during which the star undergoes a significant transformation and, depending on its size, can turn into white dwarf, neutron star or a black hole. Moreover, the largest stars, with incredibly impressive sizes, usually turn into a black hole - due to the compression of these most incredible sizes, there is a multiple increase in the mass and gravitational force of the newly formed black hole, which turns into a kind of galactic vacuum cleaner - absorbing everything and everyone around it.

A black hole swallows a star.

A small remark - our Sun, by galactic standards, is not at all big star and after extinction, which will occur in about a few billion years, it will most likely not turn into a black hole.

But let's be honest with you - today, scientists do not yet know all the intricacies of the formation of a black hole; undoubtedly, this is an extremely complex astrophysical process, which in itself can last millions of light years. Although it is possible to advance in this direction could be the discovery and subsequent study of the so-called intermediate black holes, that is, stars in a state of extinction, in which active process black hole formation. By the way, a similar star was discovered by astronomers in 2014 in the arm of a spiral galaxy.

How many black holes are there in the Universe?

According to the theories of modern scientists in our galaxy milky way There may be up to hundreds of millions of black holes. There may be no less of them in our neighboring galaxy, to which there is nothing to fly from our Milky Way - 2.5 million light years.

Black hole theory

Despite the enormous mass (which is hundreds of thousands of times greater than the mass of our Sun) and incredible strength gravity, seeing black holes through a telescope was not easy, because they do not emit light at all. Scientists managed to notice the black hole only at the moment of its “meal” - absorption of another star, at this moment characteristic radiation appears, which can already be observed. Thus, the black hole theory has found actual confirmation.

Properties of black holes

The main property of a black hole is its incredible gravitational fields, which do not allow the surrounding space and time to remain in their usual state. Yes, you heard right, time inside a black hole passes many times slower than usual, and if you were there, then when you returned back (if you were so lucky, of course), you would be surprised to notice that centuries have passed on Earth, and you haven’t even grown old made it in time. Although let's be honest, if you were inside a black hole, you would hardly survive, since the gravitational force there is such that anyone material object I would simply tear it apart, not even into pieces, into atoms.

But if you were even close to a black hole, within the range of its gravitational field, you would also have a hard time, since the more you resist its gravity, trying to fly away, the faster you would fall into it. The reason for this seemingly paradox is the gravitational vortex field that all black holes possess.

What if a person falls into a black hole

Evaporation of black holes

English astronomer S. Hawking discovered interesting fact: Black holes also appear to emit evaporation. True, this only applies to holes of relatively small mass. The powerful gravity around them gives birth to pairs of particles and antiparticles, one of the pair is pulled in by the hole, and the second is expelled out. Thus, the black hole emits hard antiparticles and gamma-rays. This evaporation or radiation from a black hole was named after the scientist who discovered it - “Hawking radiation”.

The largest black hole

According to the black hole theory, at the center of almost all galaxies there are huge black holes with masses from several million to several billion solar masses. And relatively recently, scientists discovered the two largest black holes known to date; they are located in two nearby galaxies: NGC 3842 and NGC 4849.

NGC 3842 is the brightest galaxy in the constellation Leo, located 320 million light years away from us. At its center there is a huge black hole weighing 9.7 billion solar masses.

NGC 4849, a galaxy in the Coma cluster, 335 million light-years away, boasts an equally impressive black hole.

The areas of influence of the gravitational field of these giant black holes, or speaking academic language, their event horizon, is approximately 5 times the distance from the Sun to! Such a black hole would eat our solar system and not even choke.

The smallest black hole

But in the vast family of black holes there are also very small representatives. So the most dwarf black hole discovered by scientists at present moment its mass is only 3 times greater than the mass of our Sun. Essentially this theoretical minimum, necessary for the formation of a black hole, if that star were slightly smaller, the hole would not have formed.

Black holes are cannibals

Yes, there is such a phenomenon, as we wrote above, black holes are a kind of “galactic vacuum cleaners” that absorb everything around them, including... other black holes. Recently, astronomers discovered that a black hole from one galaxy was being eaten by an even larger black glutton from another galaxy.

• According to the hypotheses of some scientists, black holes are not only galactic vacuum cleaners that suck everything into themselves, but under certain circumstances they can themselves give birth to new universes.
• Black holes can evaporate over time. We wrote above that the English scientist Stephen Hawking discovered that black holes have the property of radiation and after some very long period of time, when there is nothing left to absorb around, the black hole will begin to evaporate more, until over time it gives up all its mass into surrounding space. Although this is only an assumption, a hypothesis.
• Black holes slow down time and bend space. We have already written about time dilation, but space under the conditions of a black hole will also be completely curved.
• Black holes limit the number of stars in the Universe. Namely, their gravitational fields prevent the cooling of gas clouds in space, from which, as is known, new stars are born.

Black holes on the Discovery Channel, video

And in conclusion, we offer you an interesting scientific documentary about black holes from the Discovery Channel

Science

Astronomers first published hypothetical images of a black hole and reported that, according to their ideas, this mysterious space object should look like this. However, it should be recognized that none of them will ever be able to test their theory in practice.

Black holes in the visual sense do not fully justify their name - these objects are actually invisible, since even light entering them cannot escape their gravitational field.

However, scientists believe that the boundaries of a black hole, that is, the point of no return, which is called event horizon , must be visible due to the radiation emitted by the material that is absorbed.

At the 221st meeting American Astronomical Society scientists from University of California Berkeley presented a computer-generated image, reporting that this is what a black hole should look like:

Black hole of the Milky Way (photo)

Image of the Milky Way's black hole presented by Ayman Bin Kamruddin of the University of California

As can be seen in the picture, a real black hole with boundaries has crescent shape, and not at all a shapeless object or just a black ball, as many had previously portrayed it.

The environment surrounding a black hole is quite interesting physics and emits a glow, the astronomers said. Technically, we can't see the black hole itself, but we can imagine what the event horizon looks like.

This image is not just a guess from astronomers and their rich imagination. The picture was created based on a model that scientists use to interpret images created using new equipment, which is currently under development.

Artists' ideas about a black hole are usually very primitive

New project called Event Horizon Telescope will collect data on the World Wide Web received radio telescopes from different corners Sveta so that you can then depict objects that are too tiny to be seen, or at all not visible to the human eye.

The new telescope has already made a number of preliminary measurements and collected the first data on the black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy, known as Sagittarius A .

The researchers verified their findings using different models and came to the conclusion that the black hole, or rather, what surrounds it, has the shape of a crescent, and not something else. This form reflects "donut-shaped" disc of material, which revolves around a black hole and in one place is sucked into it.

The gas rotates around the black hole, and the side that faces observers on Earth will appear brighter due to special cosmic processes. The other side of this will be darker. In the center of the crescent is a dark circle, which represents the black hole itself.

The center of the Milky Way with the black hole Sagittarius A. The picture was taken using space telescope NASA's Chandra

The first images of the black hole Sagittarius A, according to astronomers, will help them determine the mass of this object, which is located at the center of our galaxy, and also check some aspects general theory relativity that remains in doubt.

Other unique images of space objects and black holes

Many space objects by using modern technology can be photographed. These photographs and images represent great value for astronomers, who with their help make many discoveries. We invite you to get acquainted with the most interesting pictures, made using telescopes over the past couple of decades.

Astronomers have published images of very distant corners of space taken using a space telescope NASA Spitzer. The pictures show very distant objects, including supermassive black holes, or rather not the holes themselves, but the material surrounding them.

X-rays coming from heated material falling into a black hole

Traces of a black hole in the Universe

The bright “zigzag” on the right is not the work of an avant-garde artist at all, but signature of a supermassive black hole in the center galaxy M84, obtained using the spectrograph of the space telescope. This signature represents movement of trapped gas gravitational forces black hole. On the left is an image of the center of the galaxy, where the black hole supposedly “lives.”

The core of the M84 galaxy, photographed by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope

Black hole in space

The gravitational forces of the proposed black hole form Frisbee-like disc, which consists of cold gas and is located at the center of the galaxy. Later, Hubble observations confirmed the existence of huge black holes that absorb everything around them, even light.

A ring around the suspected black hole of the galaxy NGC 4261

Star cluster with black hole

This image shows the star cluster G1, large ball from light, which consists of no less 300 thousand old stars. This object is also often called Andromeda cluster, since it is in Andromeda galaxy, nearest spiral galaxy from the Milky Way.

A globular star cluster in a nearby galaxy. The picture was taken using the Hubble Space Telescope in 1996

Big black hole

A giant black hole can release huge bubbles of hot gas V outer space. At least, such a strange property was noticed in the black hole at the center galaxy NGC 4438. This galaxy belongs to the group peculiar galaxies, that is, galaxies having irregular shape. It is located in the area Virgo constellation and is located in 50 million years from us. The bubbles are actually a disk of material being consumed by the black hole.

A black hole that "inflates" incredibly hot bubbles of gas that are a consequence of the black hole's large appetites. The bubble has a diameter of about 800 light years

Elliptical galaxy with a massive black hole

This photo depicts central part elliptical galaxy M87 with the accompanying stream. The increase in brightness of the galaxy towards the center, which can be seen in the image, suggests that stars are concentrated in the core region and are held there gravitational field massive black hole. The plasma jet, also visible in the image and originating from the hot disk of gas around the black hole, has a length of about 5 thousand light years.

NASA telescope photo taken June 1, 1991, showing the center of the M87 galaxy with its jet

Star cluster with dying star

Located at a distance about 40 thousand light years from the Earth in the area constellation Pegasus cluster M15 is one of 150 known ball star clusters, which form giant glowing rings and surround our Milky Way galaxy. All these clusters contain hundreds of thousands of ancient stars. If we lived somewhere in the center of this cluster, our the sky would shine with thousands of stars, which would burn both day and night.

Star cluster M15 with dying star in the center. Hubble telescope image showing the cluster in true color

There is nothing more mesmerizing in its beauty cosmic phenomenon than black holes. As you know, the object got its name due to the fact that it is able to absorb light, but cannot reflect it. Due to their enormous gravity, black holes suck in everything that is near them - planets, stars, space debris. However, this is not all that you should know about black holes, since there are many amazing facts about them.

Black holes have no point of no return

For a long time it was believed that everything that falls into the region of a black hole remains in it, but the result latest research what happened is that after a while the black hole “spits out” all its contents into space, but in a different form, different from the original one. The event horizon, which was considered the point of no return for space objects, turned out to be only their temporary refuge, but this process is happening very slowly.

The Earth is threatened by a black hole

solar system just part of an infinite galaxy containing a huge number of black holes. It turns out that the Earth is threatened by two of them, but fortunately, they are located on great distance- near 1600 light years. They were discovered in a galaxy that was formed as a result of the merger of two galaxies.


Scientists saw black holes only because they were near the solar system using an X-ray telescope that is capable of capturing x-rays, emitted by these space objects. Black holes, since they are located next to each other and practically merge into one, were called by one name - Chandra in honor of the Moon God from Hindu mythology. Scientists are confident that Chandra will soon become one due to the enormous force of gravity.

Black holes may disappear over time

Sooner or later, all the contents come out of the black hole and only radiation remains. As black holes lose mass, they become smaller over time and then disappear completely. The death of a space object is very slow and therefore it is unlikely that any scientist will be able to see how the black hole decreases and then disappears. Stephen Hawking argued that the hole in space is a highly compressed planet and over time it evaporates, starting at the edges of the distortion.

Black holes may not necessarily look black

Black holes are not created out of nowhere; they are based on an extinct star.

Stars glow in space thanks to their supply of thermonuclear fuel. When it ends, the star begins to cool, gradually turning from a white dwarf to a black dwarf. The pressure inside the cooled star begins to decrease. Under the influence of gravity, the cosmic body begins to shrink. The consequence of this process is that the star seems to explode, all its particles scatter in space, but at the same time the gravitational forces continue to act, attracting neighboring space objects, which are then absorbed by it, increasing the power of the black hole and its size.

Supermassive black hole

A black hole, tens of thousands of times larger than the size of the Sun, is located in the very center of the Milky Way. Scientists called it Sagittarius and it is located at a distance from the Earth 26,000 light years. This region of the galaxy is extremely active and is rapidly absorbing everything that is near it. She also often “spits out” extinct stars.


Surprising is the fact that average density a black hole, even given its enormous size, may even be equal to the density of air. As the radius of the black hole increases, that is, the number of objects captured by it, the density of the black hole becomes less and this is explained simple laws physics. Thus, the most big bodies in space can actually be as light as air.

Black hole can create new universes

No matter how strange it may sound, especially against the backdrop of the fact that in fact black holes absorb and, accordingly, destroy everything around them, scientists are seriously thinking that these space objects could give rise to the emergence of new universe. So, as we know, black holes not only absorb matter, but can also release it at certain periods. Any particle that comes out of a black hole can explode and this will become a new Big Bang, and according to his theory, our Universe appeared that way, therefore it is possible that the Solar system, which exists today and in which the Earth revolves, is inhabited a huge amount people, was once born from a massive black hole.

Time passes very slowly near a black hole

When an object comes close to a black hole, no matter how much mass it has, its motion begins to slow down and this happens because in the black hole itself, time slows down and everything happens very slowly. This is due to the enormous gravitational force that the black hole has. Moreover, what happens in the black hole itself happens quite quickly, so if an observer were looking at the black hole from the outside, it would seem to him that all the processes occurring in it were proceeding slowly, but if he fell into its funnel, the gravitational forces would instantly tore it apart.