How a black hole sucks in a planet. What happens if the earth is sucked into a black hole?

Black holes are one of the most amazing and at the same time frightening objects in our Universe. They arise at the moment when stars with enormous mass run out of nuclear fuel. Nuclear reactions stop and the stars begin to cool. The body of the star contracts under the influence of gravity and gradually it begins to attract smaller objects to itself, transforming into a black hole.

First studies

Scientific luminaries began studying black holes not so long ago, despite the fact that the basic concepts of their existence were developed back in the last century. The very concept of a “black hole” was introduced in 1967 by J. Wheeler, although the conclusion that these objects inevitably arise during the collapse of massive stars was made back in the 30s of the last century. Everything inside the black hole - asteroids, light, comets absorbed by it - once approached too close to the boundaries of this mysterious object and failed to leave them.

Boundaries of black holes

The first of the boundaries of a black hole is called the static limit. This is the boundary of the region, entering which a foreign object can no longer be at rest and begins to rotate relative to the black hole in order to prevent itself from falling into it. The second boundary is called the event horizon. Everything inside a black hole once passed its outer boundary and moved towards the singularity point. According to scientists, here the substance flows into this central point, the density of which tends to infinity. People cannot know what laws of physics operate inside objects with such density, and therefore it is impossible to describe the characteristics of this place. In the literal sense of the word, it is a “black hole” (or perhaps a “gap”) in humanity’s knowledge of the world around us.

Structure of black holes

The event horizon is the impenetrable boundary of a black hole. Inside this boundary there is a zone that even objects whose movement speed is equal to the speed of light cannot leave. Even the quanta of light itself cannot leave the event horizon. Once at this point, no object can escape from the black hole. By definition, we cannot find out what is inside a black hole - after all, in its depths there is a so-called singularity point, which is formed due to the extreme compression of matter. Once an object falls inside the event horizon, from that moment on it will never be able to escape from it again and become visible to observers. On the other hand, those inside black holes cannot see anything happening outside.

The size of the event horizon surrounding this mysterious cosmic object is always directly proportional to the mass of the hole itself. If its mass is doubled, then the outer boundary will become twice as large. If scientists could find a way to turn the Earth into a black hole, then the size of the event horizon would be only 2 cm in cross section.

Main categories

As a rule, the mass of the average black hole is approximately equal to three solar masses or more. Of the two types of black holes, stellar and supermassive ones are distinguished. Their mass exceeds the mass of the Sun by several hundred thousand times. Stars are formed after the death of large celestial bodies. Regular-mass black holes appear after the life cycle of large stars ends. Both types of black holes, despite their different origins, have similar properties. Supermassive black holes are located at the centers of galaxies. Scientists suggest that they were formed during the formation of galaxies due to the merger of stars closely adjacent to each other. However, these are only guesses, not confirmed by facts.

What's inside a black hole: guesses

Some mathematicians believe that inside these mysterious objects of the Universe there are so-called wormholes - transitions to other Universes. In other words, at the point of singularity there is a space-time tunnel. This concept has served many writers and directors. However, the vast majority of astronomers believe that there are no tunnels between the Universes. However, even if they did exist, there is no way for humans to know what is inside a black hole.

There is another concept, according to which at the opposite end of such a tunnel there is a white hole, from where a gigantic amount of energy flows from our Universe to another world through black holes. However, at this stage of the development of science and technology, travel of this kind is out of the question.

Connection with the theory of relativity

Black holes are one of the most amazing predictions of A. Einstein. It is known that the gravitational force that is created on the surface of any planet is inversely proportional to the square of its radius and directly proportional to its mass. For this celestial body, we can define the concept of second cosmic velocity, which is necessary to overcome this gravitational force. For the Earth it is equal to 11 km/sec. If the mass of the celestial body increases, and the diameter, on the contrary, decreases, then the second cosmic velocity may eventually exceed the speed of light. And since, according to the theory of relativity, no object can move faster than the speed of light, an object is formed that does not allow anything to escape beyond its limits.

In 1963, scientists discovered quasars - space objects that are giant sources of radio emission. They are located very far from our galaxy - their distance is billions of light years from Earth. To explain the extremely high activity of quasars, scientists have introduced the hypothesis that black holes are located inside them. This point of view is now generally accepted in scientific circles. Research conducted over the past 50 years has not only confirmed this hypothesis, but also led scientists to the conclusion that there are black holes at the center of every galaxy. There is also such an object in the center of our galaxy; its mass is 4 million solar masses. This black hole is called Sagittarius A, and because it is closest to us, it is the one most studied by astronomers.

Hawking radiation

This type of radiation, discovered by the famous physicist Stephen Hawking, significantly complicates the life of modern scientists - because of this discovery, many difficulties have arisen in the theory of black holes. In classical physics there is the concept of vacuum. This word denotes complete emptiness and absence of matter. However, with the development of quantum physics, the concept of vacuum was modified. Scientists have found that it is filled with so-called virtual particles - under the influence of a strong field they can turn into real ones. In 1974, Hawking discovered that such transformations can occur in the strong gravitational field of a black hole - near its outer boundary, the event horizon. Such a birth is paired - a particle and an antiparticle appear. As a rule, the antiparticle is doomed to fall into a black hole, and the particle flies away. As a result, scientists observe some radiation around these space objects. This is called Hawking radiation.

During this radiation, the matter inside the black hole slowly evaporates. The hole loses mass, and the intensity of the radiation is inversely proportional to the square of its mass. The intensity of Hawking radiation is negligible by cosmic standards. If we assume that there is a hole with the mass of 10 suns, and neither light nor any material objects fall on it, then even in this case the time for its decay will be monstrously long. The life of such a hole will exceed the entire existence of our Universe by 65 orders of magnitude.

Question about saving information

One of the main problems that appeared after the discovery of Hawking radiation is the problem of information loss. It is connected with a question that seems very simple at first glance: what happens when a black hole evaporates completely? Both theories - quantum physics and classical - deal with the description of the state of a system. Having information about the initial state of the system, using theory it is possible to describe how it will change.

At the same time, in the process of evolution, information about the initial state is not lost - a kind of law on the preservation of information operates. But if the black hole evaporates completely, then the observer loses information about that part of the physical world that once fell into the hole. Stephen Hawking believed that information about the initial state of the system is somehow restored after the black hole has completely evaporated. But the difficulty is that, by definition, information transfer from a black hole is impossible - nothing can leave the event horizon.

What happens if you fall into a black hole?

It is believed that if in some incredible way a person could get to the surface of a black hole, then it would immediately begin to pull him in its direction. Ultimately, a person would become so stretched that he would become a stream of subatomic particles moving towards a point of singularity. It is, of course, impossible to prove this hypothesis, because scientists are unlikely to ever be able to find out what happens inside black holes. Now some physicists say that if a person fell into a black hole, he would have a clone. The first of its versions would be immediately destroyed by a stream of hot particles of Hawking radiation, and the second would pass through the event horizon without the possibility of returning back.

This can happen to anyone. Maybe you are flying in outer space and trying to find a new planet suitable for human life. Or you're just going for a walk and suddenly slip. Regardless of the circumstances, you may have the age-old question that plagues the minds of many - what happens if you fall into a black hole?

Black hole paradox

You may expect to be crushed or torn into tiny pieces. However, the reality is much stranger. The moment you fall into a black hole, reality is split in two. In one reality you will be immediately burned to ashes, but in another you will begin to plunge into a black hole without any damage.

What is a black hole?

A black hole is a place where the laws of physics (as people know them) stop working. Einstein taught that gravity bends space, causing it to twist. So if you take a dense enough object, the space-time continuum can become so warped that it twists on itself, creating a hole in the very fabric of reality.

How is a black hole born?

A large star that has run out of energy to operate may offer the incredible density needed to distort a section of the universe so dramatically. As this star buckles under its own weight and collapses within itself, the space-time continuum follows it. The gravitational field becomes so strong that even light cannot penetrate it, making the area where this happens completely dark, that is, creating a black hole.

Event Horizon

The farthest boundary of a black hole is the "event horizon", that is, the place where the gravitational force drops to such a level that light is about to be able to penetrate the gravitational field. Cross this line and there will be no way out. The event horizon literally glows with energy. Quantum effects that are observed at the edge of a black hole create streams of hot particles that are emitted back into the Universe from the black hole. This phenomenon is called Hawking radiation, after the scientist Stephen Hawking who predicted this effect. If you give a black hole enough time, the radiation will release all its mass back into space, and it will exhaust itself and disappear.

Space curvature and singularity

As you move further into the black hole, space will become more and more curved until finally you reach the center of the black hole, where space is infinitely curved. This is called singularity. Space and time cease to exist, as do the laws of physics, which require the presence of those same space and time to be implemented. Nobody knows what will form next. Another Universe? Oblivion? The back of a bookcase? It's a mystery.

Your companion

So what happens if you accidentally fall into one of these cosmic aberrations? Let's ask your space companion - let her name be Anna. She watches in horror as you fall into a black hole, while she herself is at a safe distance from it. And from her point of view, everything that is happening looks extremely strange.

Anna's point of view

As you approach the event horizon, Anna sees your body stretch and distort - as if she is looking at you through a giant magnifying glass. Moreover, the closer you get to the event horizon, the more what happens resembles slow motion. When you reach the event horizon, Anna sees you freeze in place, not moving even a millimeter. You remain in one place as the growing heat begins to affect you. According to Anna, you are slowly being erased by the stretching of space, the stopping of time and the heat of Hawking radiation - until all that remains is ash.

Your point of view

But before you prepare for the funeral, you should forget about Anna for a second and look at everything that is happening from your point of view. And here something even more incredible happens - nothing. The fact is that if you look at the situation through your eyes, then you calmly fly past the event horizon, heading into absolute blackness, without receiving any damage. Of course, if the black hole were smaller, you would be warped like the rest of space, but if the black hole is large enough, then these forces can easily be ignored, and you can live for quite a long time until you get to the singularity.

Reality Gap

But what's the matter? Why did Anna see you burned while you were calmly traveling through a black hole? Has she gone crazy and hallucinating? In fact, everything is much simpler - it's a matter of the laws of physics. On the one hand, quantum physics requires that information is never lost, so you can't leave the universe and fall into a black hole - you burn up in place under the influence of Hawking radiation. On the other hand, you must travel through the event horizon without being exposed to radiation, otherwise Einstein's general theory of relativity would be violated. This is where the reality gap occurs.

Black holes still remain a mystery to scientists, challenging the postulates of modern physics. We hardly understand the principle of their existence and practically do not understand what they actually are and what they do. And it is impossible to know.

At least with the current level of technology that humanity has. The only thing we can do is watch them and make assumptions about what they are capable of. One of the most popular questions regarding black holes is as follows: What will happen to you if you fall into a black hole? Let's look at 10 of the creepiest theories that answer this question.

Cloning

The information paradox of black holes has baffled scientists for decades. This mystery has sparked countless debates about what actually happens once you fall into a black hole. To make it easier to understand this paradox, let's look at the example of a hypothetical Lucy.

You and Lucy are flying into a black hole, and at the last second she decides not to go there and is now watching as you are sucked into it. Lucy sees that as you approach the black hole, your body begins to slowly stretch and eventually splits into atoms. Lucy thinks that you died and is grateful to fate that she did not listen to you and did not go after you.

But wait. That's not how the story ends at all. You actually remain alive and continue to go deeper into the infinity of the black hole. What will happen to you next is not the essence of our question. The most interesting thing is that you survived, although Lucy saw you die.

This is the information paradox of a black hole. This is not an illusion, and Lucy has not lost her mind. This is what it really is. The laws of physics tell us that you can be both dead outside a black hole and alive while inside it. Some scientists theorize that this is not a paradox at all, since you simply cannot observe two realities at the same time.

Others point to cloning (the possibility of another you existing in another reality) as a possible solution to this paradox, even though it defies the laws of quantum mechanics regarding the process of storing information.

There is no definitive answer to resolve this paradox (yet). Perhaps, in thousands of years, humanity will be able to figure out what is really happening. However, it is already known for sure that Lucy is no longer worth taking with you on trips.

Spaghettification

There is an assumption that as soon as you get into the event horizon of a black hole, you will begin to experience powerful stretching caused by a large tidal force in a very strong inhomogeneous gravitational field. Once you start falling into a black hole, forces will begin to act on your body that will eventually tear you into small pieces (more likely even particles).

Moreover, if you fall into a black hole head first, it will move so far away from your body that you will begin to look like spaghetti. The key is the difference in acceleration due to gravity that will act on your head and legs. It will be so colossal that you will stretch out like spaghetti or noodles, if you like. Hence the name - spaghettification.

Distortion of light, space and time

The first thing anyone will notice before entering the event horizon of a black hole is how different light, space and time will become. As soon as you get inside, the laws of physics (those that we know) will cease to exist for you, and completely different forces will come into force.

The infinite level of gravity produced by the singularity located at the center of a black hole is capable of bending space, reversing time and changing light beyond recognition. Because of this, your perception of what is happening now will be completely different from what was happening before you entered the event horizon. Of course, this will last exactly until the moment you are completely swallowed up in endless darkness and will no longer be able to perceive anything at all.

Time travel

The greatest physicists who lived on our planet, such as Einstein and Hawking, theorized that time travel to the future would be possible through the use of the internal laws of black holes. As stated earlier, the usual laws of physics inside a black hole cease to apply and completely different ones take over. One of the things that makes black holes different from our world is the way time flows in them.

The gravity inside a black hole is so powerful that it can bend time. Given this, it can be assumed that the bending of time opens up the possibility of travel in it.

Therefore, if we learn to use such dramatic differences between the space inside and outside the event horizon, then it is quite possible that, due to gravitational time dilation, we can go to a future where you will still remain young, while your friends will already grow old.

Of course, we shouldn’t forget that we haven’t yet figured out a way to travel through black holes, we don’t even know how to get to them and, more importantly, survive it all.

Nothing will happen to you

If we one day have a choice of which black hole to travel through, it would most likely be a supermassive black hole or a Kerr black hole.

If we can ever reach the black hole located at the center of our galaxy, which is approximately 25,000 light-years away and approximately 4.3 million times more massive than our Sun, then we may be able to do so safely. go through it.

The concept behind this idea is that the hole's gravitational forces on anyone who wants to get into it will be very small due to the fact that the event horizon is located much further from the center of the black hole. This way, you can stay alive inside the event horizon and die only from starvation and dehydration, and perhaps from finally ending up in the singularity. Here you can bet on what will happen first, because there is no more precise answer yet.

Moreover, it is theoretically possible to stay alive and live out the rest of your life inside a Kerr black hole, which is a completely unique type of black hole, the theory of which was first proposed in 1963 by New Zealand mathematician and astrophysicist Roy Kerr.

Then he suggested that if black holes are formed from dying binary neutron stars, then it would be possible to get inside such a black hole completely unharmed, since the centrifugal force would prevent the emergence of a singularity at its center.

The absence of a singularity at the center of a black hole would, in turn, mean that you would not have to fear the infinite gravitational forces and you would be able to survive.

According to Einstein, you won't understand what's going on until the very end.

Einstein suggested that if a certain level of free fall were achieved, the effect (or rather the perception) of gravitational forces could be canceled out. This means that if a person in free fall ceases to feel his own weight, any thing that is thrown into a black hole with him will not seem to fall. It will rather appear that it will float.

Einstein developed this idea and, on its basis, derived the world-famous general theory of relativity, perhaps his most successful idea. And perhaps this will be the happiest thought for you if you fall into a black hole. Even if you fall into God knows what, you still won’t be able to understand that you are falling until you hit the singularity.

However, if at this moment someone can watch you from the side, then they will definitely see that you are falling. It's all about perception. Whatever is around you will fall relative to you (and as a result you will not be able to understand that you are falling), while for everyone who will be watching you, this will not be the case.

White hole

It is known that black holes eventually absorb absolutely everything that falls into their event horizon. Even light cannot escape a tragic fate. What is less known is what happens to all these doomed particles next. According to one theory, everything that falls into a black hole at one end comes out at the other end. And this second end is the so-called white hole.

Of course, no one has ever seen any white holes (or black holes either, frankly. We know of their existence only thanks to their powerful gravitational influence), so no one can say with certainty whether they are actually white. However, the reason they are called that is because white holes are the exact opposite of what black holes are.

Instead of absorbing everything around them, they, on the contrary, spit out everything that is inside them. And just as in the case of a black hole, from which you cannot escape if you fall into its event horizon, so it is the same with a white hole. Just the opposite: you won’t be able to get into it.

In short: the white hole spits out everything that was absorbed by the black hole into an alternative Universe. This theory has somewhat led physicists to consider the possibility that white holes are the basis for the creation of our universe as we know it. And if you ever fall into a black hole and somehow survive and are able to come out the other side through a white hole in an alternative Universe, then you will never be able to return back to our Universe.

You will follow the history of the development of the Universe

As mentioned earlier, there is a possibility of black holes without a singularity at their center. Instead, there will be a so-called wormhole in the center. If we find a way to travel through a wormhole, we will likely witness the history of the evolution of the universe, which can be followed all the way to whatever is at the other end of the wormhole. It will look as if someone started a video with the history of the Universe in infinitely fast forward.

Unfortunately, this story will still have a bad ending. The faster the picture moves, the faster you will approach your death. The light will become more and more blue-shifted and charged until it completely fries you alive with its radiation.

Journey to a parallel universe

If one day you fall into a black hole, whether consciously or accidentally, then the first thing you need to do is try to look around. Maybe you can find a way out this way, who knows. Even if it turns out that it is no longer possible to return to the Universe from which you came, then ending up in a parallel Universe may not be such a bad end to your journey.

Physicists theorize that once you reach the black hole singularity, it can serve as a bridge between this reality and an alternate reality, or so-called “parallel universe.” What happens in this new Universe remains a mystery and a field for our imagination.

Some theories even suggest that there are an infinite number of alternate Universes, each containing an equal number of completely different “yous.”

Ever thought about the choices you've made in your life? What would happen if you got that job instead of this one, met that girl or guy, instead of sitting at the computer every day? Would you be richer or poorer if you didn't do or didn't do something you were once asked to do? So, in an alternative universe you will have a chance to find out.

You will become part of the Universe

Hawking once theorized that certain particles that fall into a black hole undergo some sort of filtering process into positively charged and negatively charged particles. These particles are very slowly absorbed by the black hole. As negatively charged particles are immersed in it, they lose their mass.

Positively charged particles have enough energy to remain outside the black hole as radiation.

According to Hawking, black holes are slowly but surely losing their mass and getting hotter. They eventually explode and scatter their contents, called Hawking radiation, back into the universe. This, at least in theory, means that you can become part of the Universe, like the Phoenix reborn from the atomic ashes.

Bonus: You'll just... die

Sometimes we really like to ignore the most obvious and terrible consequences of this or that event, being blinded by the likelihood of more joyful combinations of circumstances.

As sadistic as it may sound, the most likely result of you falling into a black hole is that before you can even understand your presence inside it, not even ashes will be left of you. You won't even have time to understand that you have witnessed what physicists talk about as the key to understanding the mysteries of the Universe.

Almost every day our planet is predicted to have several “apocalypses” at once - from destruction through nuclear war to global famine, no less global warming (although something completely different is observed so far), and so on. An important place in these doomsday predictions is occupied by the “threat from space,” in particular from the action of black holes.

According to various scientists and not only them, an asteroid, the Moon, a comet may fall on us, another planet will collide with us, and so on. Some of these forecasts are even conditionally realistic - after all, objects in the Universe do tend to collide, they are constantly in motion, and an asteroid, for example, actually fell on our planet at one time.

However, the time frame of all these catastrophes is greatly exaggerated - if the Earth collides with something, it will definitely not be in ten years or even a hundred, as is actively predicted, but in at least a couple of thousand years, or even in millions or billions. After all, the distances between objects in the Universe are enormous, so in order for something to fall on us, it first needs to get to us, and also plan its course in order to get exactly to Earth, and this, in mind, is enough The small volume of our planet compared to others, as well as being around many other planets and stars, is extremely difficult. An asteroid can fly towards Earth, but it can also fly past us, as has often happened.

In addition to the phenomenal prediction of the “fall” of almost the entire cosmos on our home planet, apocalypse lovers also predict the end of the world due to the fact that the Earth can be pulled into a black hole. First of all, it is worth noting: if a black hole, at least theoretically, gets to us, then this will happen no earlier than in two thousand years, if not in millions.

What is a black hole anyway? This is a region of space and time that has an incredible gravitational attraction, from which, once pulled in, nothing can escape. Although gravity is related to physics, it is believed that no laws apply inside this thing.

If we theoretically assume that a person falls inside the hole, then he will not be torn into small pieces or even crushed, as one might assume. It is believed that the space in this thing is so distorted that two realities can exist. In one you will burn on the spot, and in the other you will penetrate deep into the black hole in good health.

In theory, a black hole could be the outcome of any massive star. That is, in due time even our Sun can turn into it. However, to do this, it must first cool completely, become a white dwarf, then explode, form a supernova - and the remnant of this supernova collapses into a black hole. However, it is not a fact that the Sun will turn into this hole at all - scientists have doubts whether our star even has enough mass to stop. Perhaps everything will end only on a white dwarf. However, even if it doesn’t end, this will no longer threaten the Earth - according to the most likely forecasts, our planet will burn up when the Sun gets very hot and increases in size, and this will generally happen in several billion years. Accordingly, the white dwarf will occur even later. Thus, the Sun, as the nearest theoretical black hole, definitely does not threaten humanity.

Could closer black holes that currently exist threaten them? It can be said with a high degree of probability that there is no such threat. Even from the asteroids described above, the Earth has a greater chance of dying.

The fact is that a black hole is an incredibly massive object. It is larger than most stars, even the largest ones. In order to suck anything into itself at all, this cosmic natural colossus needs to at least get closer, but there is no way to do this unnoticed. Moreover, you also need to manage to influence what needs to be sucked in, influencing through gravity, so that the object can be attracted, and objects are not simply selected, like goods in a store. The black hole grabs everything into itself at once, reaching out to what is, in fact, closer.

Our solar system is far from adjacent to a black hole. The closest of these giant gravitational bending things is located in the center of our Milky Way, that is, our Galaxy. Actually, this is the case in most galaxies, and, what is most characteristic, everything revolves around the black hole, wandering around it, only at a certain distance.

The sun also revolves around this hole, but our star makes even one full revolution in 250 million years, given the speed of 220 kilometers per second. For comparison, the Earth as part of the solar system managed to cover this distance only 25-30 times during its entire existence. As you can understand, this is due to the fact that the Sun is located far from the center, but almost “on the outskirts” of our Galaxy, on the inner edge of the Orion Arm, on the outskirts of the Super Virgo cluster. To be more precise and specific, according to the conventional line, our star is approximately 25 light years away from the center.

Thus, the black hole will not reach the Earth very soon. In addition, there is a possibility that such formations, over time, after billions of years, generally dissolve and disintegrate, and in some way evaporate. It is quite possible that the same thing will happen with a hole in the Milky Way. True, then there will be a need for a new black hole to ensure movement in the galaxy, and, perhaps, the approximate parameters of the stars will change altogether, move to a new orbit, and so on, in order to again receive their gravitational center, which could turn into a disaster for some of them , but scientists don’t even predict anything about when this will happen: the numbers may be too large.

Irina Letinskaya

Illustration copyright Thinkstock

You might think that a person who falls into a black hole will die instantly. In reality, his fate may turn out to be much more surprising, says the correspondent.

What will happen to you if you fall inside a black hole? Maybe you think that you will be crushed - or, conversely, torn to shreds? But in reality everything is much stranger.

The moment you fall into a black hole, reality is split in two. In one reality you will instantly be incinerated, in another - you will dive deep into a black hole alive and unharmed.

Inside a black hole, the laws of physics we are familiar with do not apply. According to Albert Einstein, gravity bends space. Thus, if there is an object of sufficient density, the space-time continuum around it can be deformed so much that a hole is formed in reality itself.

A massive star that has used up all its fuel can turn into exactly the type of superdense matter that is necessary for the emergence of such a curved part of the Universe. A star collapsing under its own weight carries with it the space-time continuum around it. The gravitational field becomes so strong that even light can no longer escape from it. As a result, the region in which the star was previously located becomes completely black - this is a black hole.

The outer surface of a black hole is called the event horizon. This is the spherical boundary where a balance is achieved between the strength of the gravitational field and the efforts of light trying to escape the black hole. Once you cross the event horizon, it will be impossible to escape.

The event horizon radiates with energy. Thanks to quantum effects, streams of hot particles appear on it and are emitted into the Universe. This phenomenon is called Hawking radiation, after the British theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking who described it. Despite the fact that matter cannot escape beyond the event horizon, the black hole nevertheless “evaporates” - over time, it will finally lose its mass and disappear.

As we move deeper into the black hole, spacetime continues to bend and becomes infinitely curved at the center. This point is known as the gravitational singularity. Space and time cease to have any meaning in it, and all the laws of physics known to us, for the description of which these two concepts are needed, no longer apply.

Nobody knows what exactly awaits a person caught in the center of a black hole. Another universe? Oblivion? The back wall of a bookcase, like in the American science fiction film Interstellar? It's a mystery.

Let's speculate - using your example - about what will happen if you accidentally fall into a black hole. In this experiment, you will be accompanied by an external observer - let's call her Anna. So, Anna, at a safe distance, watches in horror as you approach the edge of the black hole. From her point of view, events will develop in a very strange way.

As you approach the event horizon, Anna will see you stretching out in length and narrowing in width, as if she were looking at you through a giant magnifying glass. In addition, the closer you fly to the event horizon, the more Anna will feel like your speed is decreasing.

You won't be able to shout to Anna (since sound cannot be transmitted in airless space), but you can try to signal her in Morse code using the flashlight on your iPhone. However, your signals will reach it at ever increasing intervals, and the frequency of the light emitted by the flashlight will shift towards the red (long wavelength) part of the spectrum. This is what it will look like: “Order, order, order...”.

When you reach the event horizon, from Anna's point of view, you will freeze in place, as if someone paused the playback. You will remain motionless, stretched across the surface of the event horizon, and an ever-increasing heat will begin to engulf you.

From Anna's point of view, you will be slowly killed by the stretching of space, the stopping of time and the heat of Hawking radiation. Before you cross the event horizon and go deeper into the depths of the black hole, all you will be left with is ashes.

But don’t rush to order a funeral service - let’s forget about Anna for a while and look at this terrible scene from your point of view. And from your point of view, something even stranger will happen, that is, absolutely nothing special.

You fly straight to one of the most ominous points in the Universe without experiencing the slightest shaking - not to mention the stretching of space, time dilation or the heat of radiation. This is because you are in a state of free fall and therefore do not feel your weight - this is what Einstein called the “best idea” of his life.

Indeed, the event horizon is not a brick wall in space, but a phenomenon determined by the point of view of the observer. An observer standing outside the black hole cannot see through the event horizon, but that is his problem, not yours. From your point of view, there is no horizon.

If the size of our black hole were smaller, you would indeed encounter a problem - gravity would act unevenly on your body, and you would be pulled into the spaghetti. But luckily for you, this black hole is large - it is millions of times more massive than the Sun, so the gravitational force is weak enough to be negligible.

Inside a large enough black hole, you might even be able to live the rest of your life quite normally until you die in a gravitational singularity.

You may ask, how normal can the life of a person be if he is dragged against his will towards a hole in the space-time continuum with no chance of ever getting out?

But if you think about it, we are all familiar with this feeling - only in relation to time, and not to space. Time goes only forward and never backwards, and it really drags us along against our will, leaving us no chance to return to the past.

This is not just an analogy. Black holes bend the space-time continuum to such an extent that time and space are reversed within the event horizon. In a sense, you are drawn to the singularity not by space, but by time. You cannot go back and get out of a black hole - just like none of us are capable of traveling into the past.

You may now be wondering what's wrong with Anna. You are floating in the empty space of a black hole and everything is fine with you, and it mourns your death, claiming that you were incinerated by Hawking radiation from the outside of the event horizon. Is she hallucinating?

In fact, Anna's statement is completely correct. From her point of view, you were truly fried at the event horizon. And this is not an illusion. Anna can even collect your ashes and send them to your family.

The fact is that, according to the laws of quantum physics, from Anna's point of view you cannot cross the event horizon and must remain on the outside of the black hole, since information is never lost forever. Every bit of information responsible for your existence must remain on the outer surface of the event horizon - otherwise, from Anna’s point of view, the laws of physics will be violated.

On the other hand, the laws of physics also require that you fly through the event horizon alive and unharmed, without encountering any hot particles or any other unusual phenomena along the way. Otherwise, the general theory of relativity will be violated.

So, the laws of physics want you to be both outside the black hole (as a pile of ash) and inside it (safe and sound). And one more important point: according to the general principles of quantum mechanics, information cannot be cloned. You need to be in two places at the same time, but only in one instance.

Physicists call this paradoxical phenomenon the term “disappearance of information in a black hole.” Fortunately, in the 1990s. scientists managed to resolve this paradox.

American physicist Leonard Susskind realized that there really is no paradox, since no one will see your cloning. Anna will watch one of your specimens, and you will watch the other. You and Anna will never meet again and will not be able to compare observations. And there is no third observer who could watch you both outside and inside the black hole at the same time. Thus, the laws of physics are not violated.

Unless you want to know which of your instances is real and which is not. Are you really alive or dead?

The point is that there is no “reality”. Reality depends on the observer. There is “in reality” from Anna’s point of view and “in reality” from your point of view. That's it.

Almost everything. In the summer of 2012, physicists Ahmed Almheiri, Donald Marolf, Joe Polchinski and James Sully, collectively known as AMPS, proposed a thought experiment that threatened to revolutionize our understanding of black holes.

According to scientists, the resolution of the contradiction proposed by Susskind is based on the fact that the disagreement in the assessment of what is happening between you and Anna is mediated by the event horizon. It doesn't matter whether Anna actually saw one of your two copies die in a fire of Hawking radiation, since the event horizon prevented her from seeing your second copy flying deeper into the black hole.

But what if there was a way for Anna to find out what was happening on the other side of the event horizon without crossing it?

General relativity tells us this is impossible, but quantum mechanics blurs the hard and fast rules a bit. Anna could peer beyond the event horizon using what Einstein called “spooky action at a distance.”

We are talking about quantum entanglement - a phenomenon in which the quantum states of two or more particles separated by space mysteriously become interdependent. These particles now form a single and indivisible whole, and the information necessary to describe this whole is contained not in one particle or another, but in the relationship between them.

The idea put forward by AMPS is as follows. Let's say Anna picks up a particle near the event horizon - let's call it particle A.

If her version of what happened to you is true, that is, you were killed by Hawking radiation from the outside of the black hole, then particle A should be interconnected with another particle, B, which should also be on the outside of the event horizon.

If your vision of events corresponds to reality, and you are alive and well on the inside, then particle A should be interconnected with particle C, located somewhere inside the black hole.

The beauty of this theory is that each particle can only be connected to one other particle. This means that particle A is associated with either particle B or particle C, but not with both at the same time.

So Anna takes her particle A and runs it through the entanglement deciphering machine she has, which tells her whether the particle is connected to particle B or to particle C.

If the answer is C, your point of view has triumphed in violation of the laws of quantum mechanics. If particle A is connected to particle C, located in the depths of a black hole, then the information describing their interdependence is forever lost to Anna, which contradicts the quantum law, according to which information is never lost.

If the answer is B, then, contrary to the principles of general relativity, Anna is right. If particle A is associated with particle B, you have indeed been incinerated by Hawking radiation. Instead of flying through the event horizon, as required by relativity, you crashed into a wall of fire.

So, we are back to the question with which we started - what happens to a person trapped inside a black hole? Will he fly through the event horizon unscathed thanks to a reality that surprisingly depends on the observer, or will he crash into a wall of fire ( blackholesfirewall, not to be confused with computer termfirewall, "firewall", software that protects your computer on the network from unauthorized intrusion - Ed.)?

Nobody knows the answer to this question, one of the most controversial issues in theoretical physics.

For over 100 years, scientists have been trying to reconcile the principles of general relativity and quantum physics in the hope that one or the other will ultimately prevail. Resolving the wall of fire paradox should answer the question of which principles prevailed and help physicists create a comprehensive theory.

The solution to the paradox of information disappearance may lie in Anna's deciphering machine. It is extremely difficult to determine which other particle particle A is interconnected with. Physicists Daniel Harlow of Princeton University in New Jersey and Patrick Hayden, now at Stanford University in California, wondered how long it would take.

In 2013, they calculated that even with the fastest computer possible according to the laws of physics, it would take Anna an extremely long time to decipher the relationships between particles - so long that by the time she got the answer , the black hole will evaporate a long time ago.

If this is so, it is likely that Anna is simply not destined to ever know whose point of view corresponds to reality. In this case, both stories will remain simultaneously true, reality will remain dependent on the observer, and none of the laws of physics will be violated.

In addition, the connection between highly complex calculations (which our observer, apparently, is not capable of) and the space-time continuum may lead physicists to some new theoretical thoughts.

Thus, black holes are not just dangerous objects on the path of interstellar expeditions, but also theoretical laboratories in which the slightest variations in physical laws grow to such sizes that they can no longer be neglected.

If the true nature of reality lurks somewhere, the best place to look for it is in black holes. But while we do not have a clear understanding of how safe the event horizon is for humans, it is still safer to observe the search from the outside. As a last resort, you can send Anna into the black hole next time - now it’s her turn.