Black Holes Aren’t One-way Street

 

Black holes, in the not so distant past, used to be simple.

Time was, using the rules of general relativity, you could imagine a fairly simple black hole consisting of an infinitely-dense singularity surrounded by a gravitational zone of no-escape called the “event horizon”. Even the speed of light was no match for the event horizon, hence the "black" in black hole.  Whatever goes in, never comes out.

This rather simple description was a fairly decent description of what was going on inside a black hole. But in the 1970′s, the inconsistencies began to trouble the likes of British theoretical physics scientist Stephen Hawking who theorized evaporating black holes, which went a long ways to clearing up some of the more troubling inconsistencies.

Now, as an extension to his original theory, Hawking thinks that black holes aren’t the one-way street the textbooks have led us to believe.

 

There is much more info at the discovery site.  Read the Discovery article HERE

Hawking asks:What's the future of manned vs robotic missions?

I read in an article in "The Daily Galaxy" online magazine, that Stephen Hawkings has asked a question that has certainly weighed on many person's minds, exactly what is in the cards so to speak, concerning space exploration missions and will they be robotic or human crewed missions.

Hawing has said:
"Robotic missions are much cheaper and may provide more scientific information, but they don't catch the public imagination in the same way, and they don't spread the human race into space, which I'm arguing should be our long-term strategy. If the human race is to continue for another million years, we will have to boldly go where no one has gone before."


The concern being, will robotic explorers be able to step outside their mission parameters, to say, recognize lifeforms that it was not specifically programmed to look for.

Astronomer and planetary scientist at Cornell University Jim Bell in an article in Scientific American said that you might think that being so heavily vested in robotic exploration that he would dismiss manned missions as too costly but he added: “Although astronaut missions are much more expensive and risky than robotic craft, they are absolutely critical to the success of our exploration program."

The article continues with quotes on the subject from luminaries like Ben Bova.

Read complete article here

Stephen Hawking gravely ill

Reuters reports that a gravely ill Stephen Hawing was admitted to Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge. A university spokesman said his condition was described as comfortable and that he would be kept in hospital overnight.

A source was quoted by Reuters that Hawking:

• had been ill for a couple of weeks, with his condition deteriorating since he returned from a trip to the United States at the weekend......

Complete Reuters article

Physicist Stephen Hawking Going to Canada?!

Yep, it's true according to TheStar.com: Stephen Hawking accepted a research post at Waterloo Institute in Waterloo Ontario.

According to the report: Hawking will hold the title of distinguished research chair at the prestigious Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics. The role will see him make regular visits to the southwestern Ontario city, beginning next summer.

Hawking will retire from his prestigious post at Cambridge University next year, where at the age of 66 he is currently Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the famed British university, a title once held by the great 18th-century physicist Isaac Newton.

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