Some of the paragraphs may seem like they don't belong but that's the structure the teacher wants us to follow like the background paragraphs 2 and 3 and the one before the last one about what I learned.
All throughout the space-time continuum, black holes have been bending space and trapping anything that has come close enough to them, including light. Black holes will dramatically affect life on Earth, and Earth itself, as well as the entire universe, in only a couple of million years, or possibly even in the near future, and will change life as we know it. By providing information from a variety of sources such as books and the Internet, I will be able to explain the dangers of black holes and how much damage they can do, due to their gravitational attraction. With this, I鈥檒l be able to prove how these dangers can affect close objects in space and how this might lead to changes in life, and possibly the end of human life itself. Before this, however, the details of what black holes are and how they work must first be explained before reaching the concept of the extinction of many objects in space.
The title black hole might be referred to as a hole in space, but in reality, a black hole is a place in space where gravity is so strong that nothing, not even light can escape it. Scientists call black holes huge cosmic vacuums, but not because they suck everything up, but because anything passing close to a black hole will be affected by its strong gravitational pull, and on humans, will cause spaghettification, or the process of being stretched into long thin shapes do to a strong gravitational field and tidal forces stretching a body even more from both sides, the side facing towards the celestial body with the huge gravitational field and the side facing away from it, with different amounts of force (Chris Oxlade, Page 5). One theory scientists believe is that black holes form when a massive star stops shining and collapses in on itself so that the force of gravity would be so large that the material would become more and more dense, making the gravity even stronger, so that it would eventually become so great that the star would keep collapsing past its gravitational radius until nothing is left except a gravitational field. What鈥檚 left is not a solid object, but a black hole shaped like a sphere with a center of infinite density called a singularity with a point of no return- the sphere at the gravitational radius- which is known as the event horizon (Chris Oxlade, Page 14). Unfortunately, because nothing can escape from a black hole we can鈥檛 see if the singularity theory is correct or not but we can still use different devices to aid us in helping to find those answers.
Since black holes are able to trap electromagnetic radiation- one form being visible light- then their interior is invisible to us, however, black holes can still be detected if they interact with matter outside the event horizon. Once scientists figured this out in nineteen sixty-six, they started looking at other binary stars but found nothing and so tried again realizing that if one of the stars in a binary star pair was a black hole, and if the other star and the black hole were close together, then there would be a huge gravitational pull which would pull the gas from the outer layers of the star into the black hole which would spiral really fast, thus creating immense heat and X-rays which astronomers could detect using a special telescope, and this used with the stars鈥?masses used to differentiate between pulsars and black holes, led to the discovery of the first black hole, Cygnus X-1 (Chris Oxlade, Pages 22-23). General relativity describes a black hole as a region of empty space with a point like singularity at the center and an event horizon at the outer edge, but the description changes when the effects of quantum mechanics are taken into account because research has found that rather than holding captured matter forever, black holes may slowly leak a form of thermal energy called Hawking radiation. As a result to so many differences, the correct description of black holes, requiring a theory of quantum gravity is unknown (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_holes... 12/6/07). Although we can predict where black holes are, there isn鈥檛 much that can stop them so the contraction of space and the use of particle accelerators can have an extended possibility of forming a black hole which could expand across galaxies and change life as we know it.
A black hole is already in our solar system, but even if it鈥檚 far away, it can still cause serious damage to our planet, both by doing something or even by doing nothing. 鈥淎 naturally produced black hole could pass through our solar system鈥?Consequently, they may collide with the solar system or other planetary systems in the galaxy, though the probability of this happening is very small. Significant gravitational interaction between the sun and any other star in the Milky Way (including black holes) are expected to occur approximately once every 10^19 years. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_holes... 12/5/07). This supports my thesis because it shows how black holes will affect Earth by explaining how at some point in time, a black hole might interact with a celestial body such as the sun, but then you can predict what would happen because life on Earth requires the sun鈥檚 rays so without them we would have many problems that might even lead to our extinction because without the sun鈥檚 rays, we wouldn鈥檛 be able to grow much plant life like apples, corn, broccoli, etc., which are all things that provide us with the nutrients and energy our bodies need, we wouldn鈥檛 be able to make extra energy we need captured through solar panels, and our bodies wouldn鈥檛 be able to absorb the nutrients from the sun鈥檚 ultraviolet rays that we need. Also, if a black hole were to come close enough to it, it would result in the sun鈥檚 exhaustion of its supply of hydrogen which would lead to faster nuclear fusion meaning that a red giant would be made faster and as a result, it would burn humanity sooner than the predicted 5*10^9 years from now. There is a theoretical possibility that a micro black hole might be created inside a particle accelerator, for example, if two protons at the Large Hadron Collider were to merge to create a micro black hole, this black hole would be unstable (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_holes... 12/5/07). This justifies my argument because it shows how a black hole can be created right on our planet so by using our knowledge of black holes, we can immediately hypothesize with such certainty that the black hole would absorb Earth鈥檚 matter until even we didn鈥檛 remain. We can use our knowledge to explain this process because black holes are so dense that they would pass very easily through matter on Earth so it would go through the ground, to the center of the Earth, and to the other side and then it would oscillate back, over and over, absorbing all the matter until it would eventually come to rest at the core after absorbing so much matter that it slows down and eventually, it would just consume so much matter that Earth would be gone so the creation of these micro black holes can completely consume all life on Earth, or any other body in space. Even if we don鈥檛 create black holes like these micro black holes, other nearby black holes have been discovered that can affect us even when not close to us.
Black holes, which are usually in the centers of galaxies, have been found which are closer to Earth than expected so scientists predict that these objects in space will affect us even when they鈥檙e millions of miles away. 鈥淚magine a black hole swallowing Earth, ending life in an instant鈥?A black holes lies in the heart of every large galaxy. A monstrous one sits in the center of our own Milky Way. But even from a billion miles away from our solar system, a black hole would still cause a disruption in Earth鈥檚 orbit, leading to changes in our tides. Either Earth would career out of its orbit, spinning out of the solar system, or in the opposite direction, towards the sun, and we鈥檇 suffer a deadly warming鈥?(http://abcnews.go.com/2020/Science/story... or 2, 12/6/07). This shows changes that might occur on Earth and it shows how dangerous these black holes are, especially since they are able to affect us even from millions of miles away by simply ending life itself, or by causing changes in our tides so that the water level has a possibility of rising so high that it drowns people on land as well as buildings or a lot of the things on the ground which could cause problems for us like destroying natural food so that not everyone has something to eat in this time of danger. Also, if Earth spins out of the solar system then it might not receive as much light which would kill many organisms especially plant life, who use it as a source of energy which eventually passes on to us so if plants die, we get less energy or no energy at all which means that we start to die, but if this doesn鈥檛 happen, there鈥檚 also a chance that Earth will be pulled in the direction of the sun which would lead to the death of both humans and the planet. The Hubble telescope recently discovered a large black hole near the constellation of Scorpio. This black hold has been devouring stars in its path towards Earth. This black hole is much larger than the Earth and has a tremendous gravitational pull in which nothing can escape. We can only assume that the Earth could easily be swallowed by the black hole (http://library.thinkquest.org/04oct/0187... 12/6/07). By showing how a black hole can destroy or swallow other, sometimes larger, stars, the author can prove that this will also be able to destroy or swallow Earth and life on it. Since this black hole is pretty close, it will affect us 鈥?the people of Earth- in the future so since nothing can escape because you have to move faster than the speed of light and since this can鈥檛 be achieved 鈥揳t least not now- then its gravitational pull would kill life on Earth and the Earth itself because the process of spaghettification would stretch us apart until we no longer had life and possibly until we were nothing more than energy. Even black holes millions of miles away can affect us in some way, but sometimes they travel so unpredictably that we don鈥檛 notice them so if one got close enough to Earth, it would obviously destroy life on Earth, and even the Earth itself.
Even if black holes are far away, by combining with other black holes each one would be able to reach such distant locations that they even have a chance of reaching our galaxy and destroying any kind of life on it. Two merging black holes can generate gravitational waves so powerful that the merged hole shoots out of its host galaxy at a speed of up to 2,500 miles per second, and these black holes may be cruising stealthily through the universe (http://pressesc.com/01180511156_shooting... 12/6/07). This is important to know because we can use this to explain how although it may not seem as if Earth would be sucked in by a black hole, it is still possible that two black holes fuse to create such a strong black hole that it leaves its galaxy and comes to ours. As a result of having such a strong gravitational force, it would change or affect most things on Earth such as things getting higher and higher like the sea levels rising, climate changes, and if they were able to contain the sun first, we might have to face another ice age before we too get trapped or killed by the black holes. 鈥淚t鈥檚 clear that dropping the Earth into a singularity is massive overkill. A reasonably strong gravitational field鈥ould be sufficient to rip the Earth apart via tidal forces鈥?(http://qntm.org/?destroy, 12/6/07). This citation clearly proves that black holes can have an effect on us. If this gravitational field from black holes is strong enough to rip a planet, then it鈥檚 strong enough to easily suck us in, completely stretch us, and finally kill us after so many organs get cut off and we lose too much blood because just as the Earth becomes split, so would the people. There are a number of possibilities available that the black hole might take but only time will tell how they鈥檒l affect us in the future.
In the end, I was able to prove my thesis and I learned a lot about black holes over these last couple of days. I was able to prove my research and I was able to use it to prove my thesis. By providing information from different sources I was able to prove each piece of evidence to be correct in order to prove how black holes will affect us, the planet Earth, and everything else around our universe. I learned a lot about black holes such as how they have such a strong gravitational force that time stops completely so if we were able to go inside one we would see the universe changing constantly while nothing would happen to us due to time dilation, we wouldn鈥檛 even age. I also learned about how Einstein鈥檚 equations show two ends to a black hole which scientists believe lead to another location or dimension, and I learned about how a guy in a wheelchair named Stephen Hawking found Hawking radiation which is thermal radiation within a black hole spectrum. There鈥檚 a lot I learned and I was able to prove my thesis by providing evidence from different sources in order to make sure that my sources were relevant.
As you can see, black holes although far, will affect us in the future. Predictions have already been made to answer the question, when is a black hole going to meet up with our solar system, but today, we know that scientists make micro black holes when using the particle accelerator for nuclear fusion. Black holes can cause damage by absorbing other objects鈥?matter, by causing changes in tides, by either causing an escape of Earth鈥檚 orbit or a collision with it and the sun, and most importantly, we have to watch ourselves because they might end up killing us through spaghettification, and these effects may occur from very close black holes, or from very far ones as well. These things are very important to know because if we want mankind to live and prosper, we鈥檙e going to need people to work on trying to solve this problem instead of just saying why worry now when it鈥檚 still far away. This paper serves as motivation because if people know what might happen to the newer generations of their family, then they鈥檒l probably be encouraged to do something about it. Science鈥檚 theory of black holes is that once you enter, you die and never return, but at the present moment we don鈥檛 know when a black hole may come close enough to Earth that it actually begins destroying our galaxy so only time will tell, who knows, we might live because no black hole comes close enough to Earth, but then again, would you be willing to take a risk to find the mystery of black holes? You should probably shorten the essay. Teachers are people, too, make it as easy to read as possible.
The "the sky is falling" theme is too intense.
The odds of a catastrophe are greater than winning the California Lottery (4.E+07 to 1). There is no evidence that such a thing has ever happened or that it ever will.
The concept is interesting and you have lots of research.
Best of luck with you project. This is too long to read in its entirety, but what I read was mostly correct. The flaws:
- Use figures, not words, for 1966.
- There is no reason to expect that earth will encounter a black hole in the next few million years -- or indeed, ever.
- There is no evidence for the presence of a black hole in the solar system, although there does seem to be one at the center of the Milky Way galaxy.
- The primary effect of a black hole on structures is not the gravitational effects, but the tidal effects. You mention the spaghetti effect, related to this.
- A black hole of sufficient size to survive for a noticeable length of time is unlikely to be makeable with any foreseeable technology. A small one would decay by Hawking radiation and self-destruct. i really appreciate your ability to express ideas. |
