A recent Cosmos episode not withstanding, there is no reason to suspect that entering a black hole would take you to an alternate universe. If you were to fall into a black hole, you would simply be in the black hole. What happens to you after that depends upon the nature of quantum gravity, which we still don’t fully understand.
Memory Hole
Part 5 of the equations series. Got something to hide? Toss your secrets into a black hole, and no one will ever know. Or will they?
Black Holes
The basic idea of a black hole is simple. Imagine tossing a ball into the air. It goes up to a certain height, and then back down. If you toss the ball faster, the ball rises higher, but it still eventually falls. Now suppose you could toss the ball as fast as you like. Could you toss the ball so fast it doesn’t fall back down?
Unlimited
In 1916, Eddington demonstrated that there was a limit to how bright a stable star could be, known as the Eddington limit. Now a new paper shows that black holes can generate more energy than that limit would imply.
Why Hawking is Wrong About Black Holes
The recent controversy over black holes has put Stephen Hawking in the spotlight. It turns out what he proposes isn’t that controversial, and isn’t necessary to resolve the dreaded firewall paradox.
In the Hole
The idea of a white hole as an anti-black hole sometimes gets mentioned, but white holes aren’t real. They are the result of taking the mathematics relativity beyond its usefulness.
On the Edge
A black hole is normally defined in terms of its event horizon, but there are actually different kinds of horizons a black hole can have. This becomes particularly important when dealing with dynamic black holes.
Black Holes No More? Not Quite.
News has spread that Stephen Hawking has declared there are no black holes. That’s not quite what Hawking said. Instead, Hawking proposes a radical new solution to the firewall paradox.
Star Killer
Primordial black holes are hypothetical micro-black holes that some have thought could solve the dark matter problem. New research argues that if such black holes exist they could collide with neutron stars, destroying them. The fact that we haven’t seen any such events further supports the idea that primordial black holes cannot solve the dark matter problem.