Reset Password
Reset Link Sent
| Blogs > time_engineer > Time Never Tells |
|
What is matter that has no empty space? I have been fascinated with black holes since I was a , happily gobbling up books and articles written about them. When I was 20 years old I gave a speech about black holes in my public speaking class and I have never seen so many confused faces before. I know I made an impression on them because several years after I gave the speech a woman (from my class) walked up to me and said, "Hey, you're the black hole guy!" Anyway, my thoughts about them when I was a were very wrong. They are not holes in the literal sense, but fiercely compressed matter, far denser than that which can be imagined. Neutron stars are similar to black holes in that they are density champions. A neutron star is made entirely of neutrons. This means there are no protons or electrons, which means....there is very little empty space. Atoms are 99% empty space and neutron stars have no atoms. I'm not sure how much empty space is in a neutron, but I would imagine there is plenty. So these neutron stars are about the size of Manhattan island and weigh more than the Earth. If you got near a neutron star, the iron atoms in your blood would be ripped out by the super-powerful magnetic field. Furthermore, the escape velocity from a neutron star is about 70% the speed of light, so, yes, you would be dead very fast. The problem (or perhaps the good thing) about neutron stars is they simply don't have enough neutrons. They have reached a sort of stability with gravity and can not be compressed further. What happens if there are so many neutrons that gravity wins? You get a black hole. A black hole is not made of neutrons, protons, electrons, quarks, gluons, or anything we know about. Those things used to be there but they are now compressed to densities that leave little, if any, free space. Now we have reached the point where I can talk about the title of this blog post. A black hole, in my opinion, is a candidate for a type of matter that has no empty space, since they are the densest known objects other than the pinprick that supposedly started our universe. Clearly, the earliest possible point in time is the densest possible condition of matter. But it is easier to study black holes, as they are available. Another universe is not available for study, unfortunately. A French astronomer named John Michell proposed in 1783 that a star could become massive enough to have an escape velocity that equaled the speed of light, which would cause the light to orbit the star. Thus, it would appear black. He was regarded as crazy for proposing such an idea. And people probably think I'm crazy for talking about them or being fascinated with them. This is almost totally due to lack of knowledge by the general populace and the name itself inspires counterintuitive notions. -A black hole is not a hole. -It is a dead star that has been compressed to extreme densities by gravity. -It probably has no empty space (this one is my idea). -It is not made of any kind of matter that we understand. Yes, it was once made of everyday atoms, but they have been squeezed into whatever they are made of at the deepest levels. -They do deteriorate, by a process known as 'Hawking radiation'. -The escape velocity is faster than the speed of light, so they would appear black. Most interesting use of a black hole. I once read a science fiction story in which the aliens used mini black holes as defensive shields. When projectiles were fired at them, they generated a mini black hole, which 'swallowed' the projectile. Thus, they were effectively invincible against almost anything short of a nuclear explosion. |
|||
2/22/2008 1:13 am |
OH, I thought you were going to say anything that TOUCH or TEMPTATION have to say in a BLOG, empty meaning, just full of crap. How have you been doing? VICKY
| ||
2/22/2008 9:14 am |
Osmium has the highest specific gravity of any element (so far), so a cube of the size you described would weigh more than a similar sized cube of gold. The U.S. Postal service has what's called a 'flat rate envelope'. You pay the same postage regardless of the weight of the envelope. I thought, it would be funny to fill that sucker up with osmium. A piece the size of a dollar bill and one inch thick weighs 13 pounds. I could probably fix 5 or 6 of those pieces in their flat rate envelope, resulting in 60+ pounds. Even with osmium's extreme density, it is still 99% empty space. You would be hard pressed to convince someone of this, especially if they were holding a little piece. Osmium, like gold, is constructed of atoms. And all atoms are 99% empty space. It doesn't matter if you had a piece of gold the size of the United States - it would still be 99% empty space. Gold is number 79 on the periodic table, so it has 79 protons in the nucleus, with 79 electrons at an incredibly vast distance in a probability cloud. The electrons do not orbit the nucleus as planets orbit stars. Gold is fairly heavy on the neutrons, with 118.
| ||
2/22/2008 10:05 am |
OH, I thought you were going to say anything that TOUCH or TEMPTATION have to say in a BLOG, empty meaning, just full of crap. How have you been doing? VICKY I've been fine, thanks for asking. Keep reading!
| ||
2/23/2008 10:10 pm |
Very good information Apostle. I remember having read that gold looks yellow because it absorbs blue light, but I had no idea of the explanation behind it.
|
