Black is Black

True or False

Because light cannot escape from a black hole, there is no way for us to detect a black hole.

False True

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17 solutions

Michael Mendrin
Sep 30, 2015

That's kind of like saying we can't tell if there's a 800 pound black gorilla walking around in a dark room. And that's not even getting into the matter of Hawking radiation.

The posted GIF should be a clue.

But we can't tell if Schrödinger cat's cat is dead or alive ... Maybe cats are special that way.

We're hosting a wiki collaboration party on Black Hole this Friday at 8am PST. Would you be interested in contributing?

Calvin Lin Staff - 5 years, 8 months ago

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May I join? @Calvin Lin

Swapnil Das - 5 years, 8 months ago

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@Swapnil Das Of course! More details are in #Physics on Slack.

Calvin Lin Staff - 5 years, 8 months ago

Church kitchen duty calls, Calvin. That's really too bad, I think I would find it an interesting introduction to wiki collaboration. Will there be another time on the same topic?

Michael Mendrin - 5 years, 8 months ago

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No worries, what other interesting topics would you like to work on?

Calvin Lin Staff - 5 years, 8 months ago

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@Calvin Lin Well, I thought I'd start with the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics and statistical mechanics, as I am thinking about that presently. I think I would prefer to spend my time developing a comprehensive overview of this part of physics, which will also involve ties with combinatorics. But remember I'm new to working on wikis, so I need to get familiar with the process.

Michael Mendrin - 5 years, 8 months ago

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@Michael Mendrin Yup understood. Of course there will be others involved to help out too.

I'm in the midst of drawing up an explanation of how the different participants help contribute to the success of these parties :)

Calvin Lin Staff - 5 years, 8 months ago

I learnt about black holes

J. M. Ridma Jayasundara - 1 year, 5 months ago

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how coll are they

J. M. Ridma Jayasundara - 1 year, 5 months ago

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I mean how cool are they!!!!!!!!

J. M. Ridma Jayasundara - 1 year, 5 months ago

That is so cool! I didn't know that!

Aiden O'Ree - 8 months ago

When we search 'How to detect black holes' The reply is: By the gravitational pull on luminous matter But the question that is popping in my mind when look out to the space we find out whole universe is black But when we studied deeply about the black color Which is not a color its a shade What if a black hole comes closer to Earth? We cant distinguish between black shade or black hole?

Abdullah Sattar - 5 months, 3 weeks ago

nice! i got confused but then i got it

Catherine Sawyer - 5 months, 1 week ago
Pranshu Gaba
Sep 30, 2015

We know that black holes exist; we have detected black holes - one black hole is right at the center of our galaxy. This implies that there is a way to detect black holes, so the statement is False \boxed{\text{False}}

Black holes can be detected using gravitational lensing (shown in the attached GIF); looking for X-ray sources ( black holes emit a lot of X-ray radiation ), and mass estimates from objects orbiting a black hole or spiraling into the core . _\square

Great! We have a wiki collaboration this Friday at 8:30pm IST. Would you be able to contribute?

Calvin Lin Staff - 5 years, 8 months ago

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I would have loved to attend, but I have A levels coming up this month. I will remain mostly inactive on Brilliant till November 6 and won't be able to take out the time. Sorry about that! I am going to notify about this on Slack chat too.

Pranshu Gaba - 5 years, 8 months ago

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Awww. All the best with your exams! Look forward to seeing you back in a month :)

Calvin Lin Staff - 5 years, 8 months ago

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@Calvin Lin Thank you so much! 😊

Pranshu Gaba - 5 years, 8 months ago

What is the topic?

Agnishom Chattopadhyay - 5 years, 8 months ago

We know that black holes exist; we have detected black holes - one black hole is right at the center of our galaxy. This implies that there is a way to detect black holes, so the statement is \boxed{\text{False}} False ​

Black holes can be detected using gravitational lensing (shown in the attached GIF); looking for X-ray sources (black holes emit a lot of X-ray radiation), and mass estimates from objects orbiting a black hole or spiraling into the core. _\square □ ​

6 Helpful 4 Interesting 1 Brilliant 0 Confused Great! We have a wiki collaboration this Friday at 8:30 pm IST. Would you be able to contribute?

Calvin Lin STAFF - 5 years, 4 months ago 2 Replies

Efim Kiryushkin - 4 months, 2 weeks ago

http://science.howstuffworks.com/dictionary/astronomy-terms/black-hole3.htm

Efim Kiryushkin - 4 months, 2 weeks ago

Its called gravitational lensing. Black holes can bend light coming from distant stars and hence the area in the night sky map surrounding a black hole looks distorted. The GIF given with the problem itself demonstrates the effect.

yeah you're right

詩峰 黃 - 1 year, 11 months ago

Also, we could detect x-rays, ultraviolet rays and gamma rays which the black hole is emitting.

Kabir EchoVRCopper - 2 months ago
Sanchit Sharma
Oct 28, 2019

gravitational lensing, hawking raditaion(caused when the matter - antimatter pair gets seperated by absorption of one of them at the event horizon and emission of other), super heated gas jets ejecting from it, and those gravitational waves created when 2 of them collide (though detecting it was really tough) all are the means we used to detect that a black hole do exist. there may be many things i have missed.

Noah Måledal
Aug 24, 2018

if you are invisible people will still se your footsteps or if you hold something

Akshay Manchanda
Oct 1, 2015

Black hole is like a eater it eat energy and when it overdo eating this energy releases from black hole in the form of radiation energy known as quiza which govens its presence.

Yes! Otherwise known as the Pac-Man Radiation.

Michael Mendrin - 5 years, 8 months ago
Reuben Rk
Jan 16, 2021

Light isn't the only way we can detect things. black holes can be detected by the behavior of matter around it.

Raziel Laboy
Dec 21, 2020

we can detect a Black hole by observing It's affect on Space around it. If you look at the black hole, Time and space is warped around it.

Koustav Das
Nov 24, 2020

Even if black hole doesn't reflect light ,however it radiates huge amount of thermal radiation as well as a lot of ultraviolet rays and x rays. Such powerful radiation is detected by gravitation lensing, which enables us to detect the presence of black holes.

Killian Collins
Nov 7, 2020

you can still see it because it is darker than space (maybe...)

Christopher Tea
Jun 10, 2020

Since Black Holes are invisible to the naked eye, we could use observatories around the world to track how black holes move and how 2 black holes combine to make an even bigger black hole helps find out this mystery.

Tristan Lin
Feb 16, 2020

true light cannot escape a black hole but we can still detect it

Anything that enters the black hole is trapped forever. Not even light can escape a black hole so it is dark and we can not see it. Say light is you who are swimming in a river that ends in an enormous waterfall. As you go along it gets faster even though you can not see the waterfall yet. You could swim to safety and you reach the point of no return. Nothing can escape a black hole waterfall when it comes too close.

詩峰 黃
Jul 3, 2019

gravity bends light but radiation is coming out witch we can detect it with technolgy nowadays

Thanks to equations, we can predict nearly everything that we won't approach in our cosmos .

Thaddeus Spann
Oct 11, 2015

Black holes can be detected, because of the effect n their surroundings. Gravity is an effect caused by the curving of 3d space- 1d - time by an object of mass. And Black holes have a amazingly huge amount of mass concentrated into and even more amazingly small volume. This high density causes space-time to warp, incredibly. Because of this, light passing the black hole is bent towards it, giving the appearance of falling towards it, causing a gravitational lense effect. Hence how you could detect it with your eyes. Other than that there is the super hot glowing disk formed by gas falling into it; giant stars being slung around it like toys, at unbelievable velocities; and x-ray detection, and if it's an supermassive one in whats called a quasar, (an active galaxy), you'll know it by the beam of light (particles) being blasted from the center of said active galaxy, and will look like the lights they use at parties and night clubs. But it's not that kinda light.

Aaryan Maheshwari
Aug 15, 2017

We know that mankind has detected black holes..(lol)

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