Astrophysical observations are shedding more and more light on the literally dark spots of the cosmos: the June issue of bild der wissenschaft focuses on the mysterious black holes. The three-part title story deals, among other things, with how the gravity giants influenced the development of the universe or perhaps created it in the first place. They may even be fantastic-looking bridges to other universes.
Only recently, a particularly prominent black hole made headlines around the world: astronomers presented a photo of Sagittarius A* in the center of our Milky Way for the first time. Once again it becomes clear what characterizes these bizarre celestial bodies: Due to their gigantic gravitational force, they bend space so much that not even the light escapes them. In the Event Horizon telescope image, the black hole appears as a dark shadow surrounded by a bright ring of rays of diffracted light. Sagittarius A* is one of the gravitational giants known as supermassive black holes, which typically form the centers of galaxies.
The different categories of black holes are also the focus of the first part of the title story. In addition to the supermassive, there are the stellar, the intermediate, and possibly a fourth version – the primordial black holes. The bdw astro expert Rüdiger Vaas reports on the current knowledge and ideas about how these different categories came about and what role they play in the cosmos due to their special characteristics. It becomes clear that the darklings do not just represent everything devouring mouths in the universe, but shape the evolution of the cosmos in a complex and “fruitful” way. There’s even the notion that our universe itself is some kind of black hole, Vaas reports.
Of Gravitational Waves and Matryoshka Multiverses
Then, in the article “Black Holes Shake Space,” the author turns to gravitational waves and the information these space-time oscillations can provide us with about the sinister astro-celebrities. A lot has happened since gravitational waves were first detected in 2016: astrophysicists can now record gravitational waves from distant black holes on a weekly basis. The large amount of new data enables conclusions to be drawn about the origin of the different gravity giants and shows their “eating behavior”. For the first time, the exotic middleweights were also proven by this source of information, the origin of which seems particularly puzzling, reports Vaas.
The title theme is rounded off by a look at fantastic-looking approaches to the possible overarching meaning of black holes: Perhaps the cosmos therefore consists of countless universes that exist nested inside each other in black holes – like the Russian Matryoshka dolls. In such a multiverse, gravitational collapse events could lead to a Big Bang and the bulging of a new space-time bubble, one envisions. Such a multiverse would even eliminate certain physical inconsistencies, reports Vaas.
You can find the articles on the cover story “The Black Hole Multiverse” in the June issue of bild der wissenschaft, which will be available in stores from May 17th.