"for many years, i have slobbered uncontrollably on my left shoulder.."

hmmm...sounds like a pink floyd song in the making...

lol. ya sick git

@finalday - interesting article...I can't contribute much because I know very little about the subject, but an interesting article it definitely is.

Someone with a little astronomical know how come and explain it in layman's terms because I am extremely confused.

Perhaps the confusion stems from the vagueness of the terminology. What exactly is this information? Is it some kind of cosmic sound file that astronomists can look at and say "Whoa! Big radiation spike there! Must've been a planet or a star!", in which case this would make black holes the tape recorders of the cosmos?

All this to say, I'm confused and looking for a little enlightenment.

Basically the idea previously was that once a black hole squashes all the matter down, it loses any characteristics - like whether it was gas, a metal, water, whatever. But some people were unhappy with this because they say information can't be permanently lost. So that's what this new theory's about

it is interesting. the interview was on ITV the other night. It always causes a stir when something comes out about the black hole. Some scientists still believe it is an actual way to time travel. I was no good at physics in school, so when i try and work out how that is possible, i usually faint after 3 seconds for thinking too hard

I do not necessarily agree, however the further beyond the event horizon that an object travels, the more the laws of physics break down. Therefore, anything is theoretically possible.

i do blieve that might be possible. but then again, you gotta prove theories and not just come up with them and make people think about it. yeah, we gotta grab hold of a black hole.

I think the basis was that:

Originally - a black hole was a massively small object which had humongous gravity, so it "pulled" everything into it. Due to the size of gravity, nothing could escape once pulled in - not even light (hence they ar black ).

However, it continues to pull in matter and sqaush it without the matter every being recoverable - so in effect it meant destruction of matter.

They had a law of physics that says its impossible to destroy matter, the energy just changes to another form (eg - energy inside gas for example gets turned into heat and light energy, and a little sound energy too if you have a "roaring' flame.

So since its impossible to "destroy" things, then it must be changed, and the hazy bit is that since the holes don't seem to be absorbing the universe, that in order to ensure that energy cannot be destroyed, it is in fact escaping from a black hole in some method - the Hawking stream or whatever its called. This will satisfy the laws of physics that they have, and we can ALL breathe a sigh of relief that someone has explained it now. Whether its true or not we will never really know.

Ever notice how whenever they need an explanation - they always find it? I am sure there is some humougous mathematical calculation that goes with the theory to "prove" it......which you cannot discredit - but you cannot help but feel they do not discover anythign anymore. ALl they do is think of an idea, and then work the mathematics like heck until they have made it explain their idea. Then its taken as being true!

Edited by - Chips on 7/22/2004 2:22:13 AM

no chips, even with a humoungous mathematical calculation, its all based on theory. so whilst 1+1=2 has been proven, you're gonna have to prove this enourmous calculation. only way is to grab hold of a black hole, or re-create one in lab scale.

Kimk - what i meant was they don't work from an existing one, they see the end point, and then work towards proving it. They have to - they cannot look at a calaculation and see where to go, they see what they need, and work towards it - therefore proving it as well. I know its all based upon maths, but since it is all theory and not experimental outcome - then by definition they work towards what they are after.

I wasn't aware that 1+1 HAD been proven (conclusively anyway).

to be honest and i also dont mean to start an argument. but personly i think that black holes are really gate ways of some sort, simaller to the movie contact. however, the gate way freezes time and space so thats why it spits spits stuff back out into our universe.

these scientist people are a bunch of fruits!!
Tomorrow they'll discover that the earth is flat or something.
JUST IGNORE THEM!

The balck hole is not 'destroying' the matter, just crushing it to an infentismally small size to the point where thier elemental charges break apart, so basically, inside a BH is a sea of quarks. In order to recover the matter inside, the hole has to be shut down, and it is near impossible to do that slowly. Basically, unless you want one REALLY big explosion (and i mean big, im talking, galactic size explosion here) its gone, and thier's nothing we can do about it