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How to Escape From a Black Hole

universetoday.com — According to Einstein's theory of general relativity, black holes are regions of space where gravity is so strong that not even light can escape. In the 70's Stephen Hawking asserted that any information sucked inside a black hole would be permanently lost. But now, researchers have shown that information can be recovered from black holes

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  • sc0rpi0n, on 05/16/2008, -22/+6How to blacklist universetoday.com? Time and time again they put drawings without explicitly commenting that those are not actual photos of black holes, etc.
    • Dundasbro, on 05/16/2008, -1/+10A photo of a black hole...?
    • marjo9, on 05/16/2008, -1/+12i took a photo of a black hole once but the light never came back...
    • carpeclunes, on 05/16/2008, -0/+16Here is a photo of a black hole:









      See, it is not very interesting.
  • TheThirdLevel, on 05/16/2008, -6/+14Take that, you ***** gravity whores.
    • ljsmithx, on 05/16/2008, -1/+1EU FTW
    • Tzunamii7, on 05/16/2008, -0/+0Ya see em slipping electrical phenomene into Astronomy more and more these days.
      Just a matter of time.
  • uptwolait, on 05/16/2008, -1/+48From the article: "A fundamental part of quantum physics is that information cannot be lost". Unless, of course, your hard drive crashes.
    • Cglass, on 05/16/2008, -2/+8the data is still on the platters...
      • FarvaRadio, on 05/16/2008, -0/+6Lies!
        Well ok, im just bitter over the loss of my massive porn collection.
  • Dystisis, on 05/16/2008, -12/+3Remember that black holes are just a theory, none has been proved to exist.
    • mrmorris, on 05/16/2008, -12/+2When the Large Hadron Collider is started at CERN, we'll have proof. Also we'll be dead, but that's the price all scientists had to pay for wisdom throughout time.
      • ljsmithx, on 05/16/2008, -2/+1Well you can't really say that something that is going to happen in the future is going to prove something.
        It may be a non-event.
      • sostoudt, on 05/16/2008, -0/+3when is LHC set to start running. i wonder if they will schedule it for dec 21 2012(mayan doomsday) just for kicks.
      • benjorino, on 05/18/2008, -0/+1Its set to start running around mid-june this year, with the actual collisions being performed shortly after that.
    • MrTarot, on 05/16/2008, -10/+1The Large Hadron Collider is supposed to be able to produce the mini versions of black holes right? One of my coworkers and I were talking about this and we're both unconvinced it'd be safe. Hopefully they've thought of things like that.
      • matx, on 05/16/2008, -0/+12The black holes that would be created by the LHC would be so small that they would disappear very quickly and not have enough energy to suck anything in. So no chance of destroying the world if one is to be spawned. It even explains this on the CERN website.
      • apmtt, on 05/16/2008, -0/+7No, none of the scientists working on the LHC have considered the possibility of a black hole appearing. But now, thanks to you, I will tell them to do so.
      • sparcher, on 05/17/2008, -0/+1Well, unless you and your coworkers are top notch physicists, I hardly think that is of any information to any of us here.
    • TheUserFactor, on 05/16/2008, -1/+4Then tell me where my iPod shuffle is.
    • ljmunz, on 05/16/2008, -0/+1Kinda like gravitational theory?

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_theory#Sci ...
  • umbrellainabin, on 05/16/2008, -12/+7my gf has a black hole which is amazing
  • jpl7986, on 05/16/2008, -2/+5It's called Hawking Radiation, it was Hawking also who proposed it back in 1974
    • hauntedchippy, on 05/16/2008, -0/+2Yes but it was never proposed to solve the information problem back then. This is a recent development
    • LeRenard, on 05/16/2008, -0/+2Isn't Hawking Radiation when particles hit the event horizon and "reflect" as anti-particles?
    • apthebold, on 05/16/2008, -0/+1Hawking Radiation created the information paradox. The theory is that there is so much energy in the gravity well around the black hole, that matter/antimatter pairs pop into existence. Most of the time they annihilate each other, but sometimes, they would separate, one would go into the black hole, giving the other enough momentum to escape the gravity well. This reduces the black hole's energy, and subsequently the hole's mass. But since the particles were generated outside of the event horizon, there is no connection between the Hawking radiation and the stuff that fell into the black hole, breaking causality, and giving a whole generation of physicists nightmares.
      • hauntedchippy, on 05/16/2008, -1/+1I'm sorry but your incorrect. The information paradox existed before Hawking radiation was proposed and it's easy to see why once you understand what it is. Information is a fundamental quantum parameter that cannot be created or destroyed, so what happens to the information of something that is sucked into a blackhole? You'd think it would be lost forever, but that violates quantum mechanics. Hawking radiation was a proposition resulting from the concept of virtual particle pairs that occur EVERYWHERE not just at event horizons. The difference is that at exactly the event horizon, one of the VP's will be sucked in therefore being unable to annhilate the other leaving it free to radiate away from the black hole. The development here is that someone has shown through complex mathematics that the escaping VP could carry away the information of objects that have already been sucked into the black hole thus solving the paradox.
  • Totz83, on 05/16/2008, -2/+5So.. Gutmann Method > Blackholes.... Duely noted
    In other news, wtf happened the comments setup? I dont like change!
  • ksgant, on 05/16/2008, -0/+3Let this be a lesson to you people with bad stuff on your hard drive....they can always get the information back off of it....even if you have a handy black hole to throw it into.
  • LeRenard, on 05/16/2008, -2/+2I thought that past the event horizon entropy increased to infinity?
    • wazzu07, on 05/16/2008, -0/+1it is...but they are theorizing that the energy or material isnt lost like physics says it shouldnt be. which i guess they should have just thought all along. now thats a thinker.
  • jsaya, on 05/16/2008, -0/+26Black Hole Recovery Pro v1.0
    • ljsmithx, on 05/16/2008, -1/+6w/ CRACK THANKS TO TEAM RESURRECTiON
  • stringerbell, on 05/16/2008, -0/+6You have to kill the evil robot first, before one can escape the black hole!
  • AngryAngryBrian, on 05/16/2008, -0/+2So remember kids always do at least a three pass wipe before you sell your black holes on eBay.
  • karmabandit, on 05/16/2008, -0/+6This is just *theoretical* work, based on an as-yet unproven model. I didn't read their article in Physical Review Letters, but since it is from Penn State, I would guess it is based on Loop Quantum Gravity ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loop_quantum_gravity ). This is just one of many possible ways to combine quantum mechanics and gravity, as opposed to String Theory, or others. None of those possible models is widely accepted, nor has any real evidence to support it. So, when and if Loop Quantum Gravity gets some independent evidence, then let's celebrate our hairy black holes ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_hair_theorem ).
  • netneutrality, on 05/16/2008, -0/+6Nope..... embarrassed to admit I didn't understand anything past the second paragraph of that article.
    • Marinium, on 05/16/2008, -0/+2Second paragraph huh? One paragraph more than me...... Look! something shiny! brb.
    • Tzunamii7, on 05/16/2008, -0/+0Neither do they.
      What garbage.
      Like alice in Wonderland, its not science.
  • yunus, on 05/16/2008, -3/+4Spoiler***
    It's the same technique used in escaping from riptides. Swim sideways.
  • TheUserFactor, on 05/16/2008, -0/+1"Approximation of reality" is the key term. The human perceptions of distance and velocity and time really have almost no meaning in the context of the universe.
  • darkmotion, on 05/16/2008, -3/+3Black hole / ghetto neighborhood? I'd like a guide on how to escape that.
  • burninthepyre, on 05/16/2008, -1/+7Quantum mechanics: When you can't figure it out, make something up.
    • Tzunamii7, on 05/16/2008, -1/+0Clearly a gravitational effect.
      Nothing to see here.
  • awtripp, on 05/16/2008, -1/+3does this mean we can get back all those emails the white house deleted?
    • JimmySpaza, on 05/16/2008, -1/+1If Hillary Clinton can suddenly find those Rose Office law firm documents that were somehow hiding in plain site in the White House attic, then...yes, there is hope for all other recovery ventures.
  • DestroyFascism, on 05/16/2008, -0/+1Not if its the White house (Recovering information from a black hole)
  • verkon, on 05/16/2008, -1/+2God damnit, I wrote in my science report that it is impossible in any way, and now they figure out a way?
  • RedRaptor, on 05/16/2008, -0/+1What about Hawking/Fry Holes?
  • 3leggedHorse, on 05/16/2008, -0/+1 Escape from our Universe.
  • SpItFiRe3297, on 05/16/2008, -2/+1That wasn't written in English.
  • deadapostle, on 05/16/2008, -0/+1It seems to me as though the article is saying that if you get sucked into a black hole, you may be ejaculated in a fantastically different space time. I'm guessing you'd probably be physically reduced to a diamond by then, but that would be a neat way to travel through time and space.
  • rmxz, on 05/16/2008, -0/+1I always wondered if you could get stuff out of a black hole if you "simply" brought another black hole close enough and then pulled it away (or rather, let it's momentum carry it away) - and the gravity well of he second one will push "down" deep enough that some stuff from inside the first one can move halfway between the two, and as the second black hole leaves that matter could stay halfway between the two and get lifted out of the wells. Probably doesn't work in real physics (for some reason I don't understand), but might work in a scifi novel :).
    • deadapostle, on 05/16/2008, -0/+1Let me just put on my special black hole moving gloves and I'll be right there to help.

      I guess Douglas Adams might have gone this route.
      • rmxz, on 05/16/2008, -0/+1Momentum and kinetic energy seem to do what's needed.
        If one black hole makes a near approach right next to another one it seems it's own momentum would carry it on past.
  • V1ncent, on 05/16/2008, -1/+3How to escape a black hole: Get Brittney to open her legs...
  • pizzas, on 05/16/2008, -0/+5Ahhhh i always wondered how to escape a 2 dimensional black hole
  • jks139, on 05/16/2008, -0/+1You sirs need a lesson in optics.
  • McShr3dd3r, on 05/16/2008, -0/+0We will find out if this theory is true when the Large Hadron Collider goes live this summer.

    Oh Noes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    (BTW anyone have an official date for that so I know when to boogey before we are all demolishized?)
  • trollick, on 05/16/2008, -0/+2"Once you consider quantum gravity"

    Yeah.. ok.. and once you consider the implications of my new theory of magic, all kinds of things are possible.
  • level60elite, on 05/16/2008, -0/+0Well, I do believe my brain just died after reading that article. So much for my college education.
  • stix213, on 05/16/2008, -0/+1Is this supposed to be comforting, that the information of my fall into a black hole is actually preserved?
  • smek2, on 05/17/2008, -0/+1"But the Penn State team suggest that singularities do not exist in the real world." -- wow, it took them this long to state the obvious? I mean, a singularity is after all nothing but a situation in which our (read, human invented) mathematical models break. That doesn't mean that there are actually singularities galloping through nature. If we encounter results which leading to singularities, we have to rework our mathematical models, not the other way around.
  • akaz, on 05/18/2008, -0/+3*****' THING SUCKS!!
  • seax, on 05/19/2008, -0/+0Perhaps what goes in, just pops out the other side. Maybe there is some order to the chaotic black hole !
    seax
  • Scuzbucket, on 05/19/2008, -0/+0Wrong again Stephen Hawking!
  • web3box, on 05/21/2008, -0/+0Interesting... I will think on that !
  • MarkusX, on 05/22/2008, -0/+1Cool article about back holes.
    I always wondered how information could be lost.
    If it could, it has to somehow cross a barrier of no return, but I think it's always still there just infinitely smaller/farther away (in the black hole) yet not far enough to become invisible.
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