The Existence of Black Holes essays

The Existence of Black Holes essays While there are some physicists who believe that black holes do not exist, there is much data to support otherwise. In fact, much evidence seems to support the existence of black holes. For example, NASA's Hubble Telescope and the Chandra X-ray Observatory seem to have discovered "direct evidence' (NASA 2001) of one characteristic of a black hole. This characteristic is the area that surrounds black holes, which emits very little energy. Michael Garcia states, "By detecting very little energy from these black hole candidates, we have new proof that event horizons exist" (NASA). Furthermore, astronomers have also detected sound waves coming from what they believe to be a black home in the Perseus galaxy cluster. (Discovery 2003) Astronomers have long known that gravity in black holes pulls matter toward them, with matter accelerating the closer it comes to the black hole. Calculations also show that gas surrounding black holes will become hotter. One of the most persuasive cases supporting these theories is Cygnus X-1. (Pasachoff 1991 p. 496) By studying mass, velocity, and X-rays around the star HDE 226868, astronomers believe black holes do exist. Another case supporting the existence of black holes is the discovery of "mid-mass black holes" (Beasley 2001) in Meanwhile, John Cramer explains that this theory grounds itself in the fact that with standard general relativity, "gravity is considered to be geometrical', to be a consequence of the curvature of space produced by nearby mass-energy" (Cramer). In short, because "Because gravitational energy does not produce curvature, it does not respect local energy conservation" (Cramer). Those who support this theory also maintain that another problem with the general relativity theory concerning black holes deals with "space-time singularities'" (Cramer). Because we cannot place ourselves inside a black hole, we do not...