What are black holes and how they can be proof that humanity lives in a hologram

Black holes are one of the biggest and perhaps the most frightening mysteries in the universe that humanity seeks to understand, but will probably never fully understand. These objects are so powerful that even light at 300,000 km/s cannot escape from their "embrace", and entire planets are "spaghettified", turning into a thin thread of matter. They may also hint that our entire Universe is just a hologram.

OBOZ.UA tells what scientists know about black holes, how they are formed, and how they can tear apart everything that comes too close.

What are black holes?

Black holes are extremely dense and massive space objects. This feature of them has led to the emergence of such a strong gravity that it is able to bend the fabric of space-time, creating a region from which there is no return.

This region of a black hole is called the event horizon. This is a kind of point of no return, crossing which any object will eventually be swallowed by the black hole due to the irresistible force of its gravitational attraction. Beyond the event horizon, gravity becomes so intense that even light cannot escape. It is because of their ability to absorb light that black holes got their names.

Black holes can have a profound effect on their surroundings, bending space-time and changing the orbits of neighboring stars and planets. They can also cause collisions between neighboring stars.

In addition, supermassive black holes at the center of galaxies are believed to be architects responsible for shaping the distribution of stars and other matter.

How a black hole is formed

Black holes are the result of the death of massive stars. When such a star reaches the end of its life, it burns up its last reserves of fuel and can no longer produce the energy needed to counteract gravitational forces. As a result, the star collapses into itself. At this point, its outer layers "fall" onto the core, provoking a powerful explosion. If the star was massive enough, this explosion will lead to its further compression and transformation into a black hole.

As a result, three types of black holes can form:

• stellar black holes - the smallest and most common type, which is formed as a result of the collapse of a single massive star;

• intermediate black holes - believed to be formed after the merger of several smaller black holes;
• supermassive black holes - the largest possible black holes, which are believed to be at the center of every existing galaxy. In the Milky Way, this is the black hole Sagittarius A.

"Spaghettification" of matter

Imagine a giant planet. No matter how huge it is, the closer it gets to a black hole, the more terrible things will happen to it. To begin with, it will begin to stretch and shrink at the same time under the gravitational force of the hole.

At this time, the matter from which the planet is made will stretch into a long thread, or spaghetti (hence the term "spaghettification"), which will wrap around the black hole. It will also heat up due to the friction caused by the intense gravity and shine due to the intense emission of X-rays and other high-energy particles. It is this glow that allows scientists to see black holes.

Eventually, what was once a planet will reach the point of singularity. Here, the laws of physics known to mankind simply cease to apply. In the singularity, matter will be compressed into an infinitesimal point, and its mass and energy will be transferred to the black hole.

Proof that the Universe is a hologram

There is another interesting theory about black holes. Scientists have calculated that when a black hole receives any information, it reacts in a unique quantum gravitational way.

The point is that (at least this is how it looks to scientists), the information becomes tied more to its surface than to its volume. That is, three-dimensional data (information) somehow leaves a trace only in two dimensions of the black hole and has no effect on the third. From this, researchers make a risky assumption that black holes are holograms.

Otherwise, they cannot explain how it can be that the event horizons of black holes, the only places in the universe where quantum mechanics and gravity meet, somehow work counterintuitively, when their surfaces respond to information more than their volumes.

The researchers believe that perhaps this is nature trying to give us a hint that the quantum theory of gravity should be holographic in nature. And according to this, space, time, matter, and energy, like all of us, are just a hologram.

Based on the materials of Orbit Inside and Universe Today

Earlier, OBOZ.UA also talked about the fact that black holes can act as time machines, or even be supercomputers for advanced alien civilizations.

Subscribe to OBOZREVATEL's Telegram and Viber channels to keep up with the latest developments.