Wednesday, March 8
Another exciting new hypothesis about dark matter and dark energy!
I realize that I am completely unqualified to understand and, really, even comment about the investigations trying to figure out what in the heck is going on with black holes, why the universe seems to be expanding much more rapidly than it should, and why measurements suggest there's a lot of extra matter hanging around but invisible to us. But I can't help that I'm really interested in it anyway, and so I was excited to see this development.
Lawrence Livermore lab physicist George Chapline proposes that black holes aren't holes at all but dying stars going through weird quantum states:
In any event, it's appealing to me that if Chapline's right, then the laws of physics that seem to work pretty well in every other area studied wouldn't be inexplicably inapplicable to black holes.
Some parts of the theory are a bit freaky, such as the possibility that "'we are living inside a giant dark energy star,"and that "'Our universe is pervaded by dark energy, with tiny dark energy stars peppered across it.'" Though come to think of it, that might explain a lot!
I realize that I am completely unqualified to understand and, really, even comment about the investigations trying to figure out what in the heck is going on with black holes, why the universe seems to be expanding much more rapidly than it should, and why measurements suggest there's a lot of extra matter hanging around but invisible to us. But I can't help that I'm really interested in it anyway, and so I was excited to see this development.
Lawrence Livermore lab physicist George Chapline proposes that black holes aren't holes at all but dying stars going through weird quantum states:
Last week at the 22nd Pacific Coast Gravity Meeting in Santa Barbara, California, Chapline suggested that the objects that till now have been thought of as black holes could in fact be dead stars that form as a result of an obscure quantum phenomenon. These stars could explain both dark energy and dark matter.I'm a bit confused about how new the idea is, because I hadn't heard of it before and just got this article about it from Reuters, but wikipedia mentions its having been announced last year, and even has articles to back that up .
In any event, it's appealing to me that if Chapline's right, then the laws of physics that seem to work pretty well in every other area studied wouldn't be inexplicably inapplicable to black holes.
Some parts of the theory are a bit freaky, such as the possibility that "'we are living inside a giant dark energy star,"and that "'Our universe is pervaded by dark energy, with tiny dark energy stars peppered across it.'" Though come to think of it, that might explain a lot!
