Black holes in space are one of the most amazing phenomena of the universe known to modern science. Their existence was predicted by Albert Einstein in the first quarter of the XX century.
The theory of relativity, the relationship of space and time
As far back as the end of the 19th century, physics was considered to be a practically exhausted science. It seemed to scientists that all the mysteries of nature were solved, and the structure of the surrounding
The world is about to be fully explained within the framework of existing representations of science. As it turned out, the Universe presented stunningly unexpected news for physicists. Young at that time science - thermodynamics - discovered that the propagation of light is not explained by the classical laws of Newtonian mechanics. This task has occupied the minds of scientists around the world. It was possible to solve it by a young patent office employee from Switzerland. His name was Albert Einstein. He created a picture of the world - the theory of relativity - completely turned over the idea of mankind about the structure of the universe. Among all the other consequences of the theory of relativity, the inextricable link between space and time has become a remarkable conclusion. Without going into details, we can say that the speed of the passage of time for a particular person (or any object - a frame of reference) is closely related to the speed of movement in space. At everyday speeds available to us, this is completely invisible. However, if the body is accelerated to a speed close to the speed of light, miracles begin - time will literally slow down. This idea has been repeatedly implemented in
science fiction of the XX century.
The curvature of space and time, black holes in space
Another interesting conclusion of Einstein was the fact that both space and time can literally bend under the influence of gravitational forces. This means that time flows more slowly, not only for a fast-moving object, but also near very massive bodies. And the closer to it, the more time slows down.
As paradoxical as it sounds, but on the first floor of a skyscraper, time goes more measuredly than on the twentieth. But again, due to the relatively small size of the Earth in space standards, we never notice this. The difference is millionths of a second. There is also a curvature of space. It simply bends towards a massive body, literally pulling it toward itself with its gravity. Already from this fact it followed that black holes in space could exist. The possibility of such bodies was supposed even before the discovery of the theory of relativity by an 18th-century scientist John Mitchell. However, another German scientist, Karl Schwarzschild, was the first to prove this on the basis of Einstein equations.
The first practical confirmation of the Einstein theory of the curvature of space was confirmed back in 1919, when the English astronomer Arthur Eddington confirmed that the light of distant stars passing near the Sun really bends it. This body is so massive that it not only bends to its side all the bodies and light rays passing by it, but also attracts them to itself. On Earth, in order to send a body into space, it is necessary to give it a speed of 11.2 km per second. This is called runaway speed. But on a heavier planet, such as Jupiter, it would take a lot of speed and, consequently, more energy. And imagine that black holes in space are so dense objects that their runaway speeds are higher than 300 thousand km / s. This means that light cannot overcome them.
attraction. And if a black hole in space does not release light, then nothing can escape from it. Since, according to the theory of relativity, the
speed of light is the highest possible speed in nature.
A modern look into space. Black holes on the maps of astrophysicists
Today, scientists have discovered more than a thousand objects in the starry sky, which are considered black holes. The complexity of their precise definition is that these objects cannot be directly observed. They can be noticed only by the behavior of neighboring celestial bodies. So, in the center of most galaxies are huge masses of black holes around which billions of stars revolve. Including our Milky Way.