“how does understanding the general theory of relativity help us determine where black holes are so we can have safer travels through space when exploring it?”
Introduction:
Black holes have continued to fascinate scientist throughout the years. Whether it being how they are created, how they work, or even what’s inside them. when looking at the question of how knowing the location of black holes will help us have safer travels through space, we will need to first identify key concepts like what is the general theory of relativity, black holes, connect them together by seeing how the general theory of relativity has helped us discover and find black holes, and then talk about how it will ensure that we will have safe travels in space.
What are black holes?
black holes are made of matter that is held so tightly together, that their gravity overwhelms all other forces in physics. Although our knowledge of how black holes are created is still to be understood, we understand that they are created when massive stars reach the end of their lives and collapse inward under their gravity. This theory was originally made by professor Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar of the University of Chicago in the 1930s, he stated that massive stars would collapse after they ran out of fuel for nuclear fusion which is the reaction that powers the sun by keeping them hot and bright.
What is the general theory of relativity?
General relativity is a theory made by physicist Albert Einstein, which states that gravity is how mass warps space and time. A simple way to look at this is to imagine a rubber sheet, this represents spacetime, now, let’s put a weight on the rubber sheet, this represents a planet, star, etc. When placed on the sheet, it creates a crater on the sheet, this represents how the mass of the object warps space and time, and now, let’s put a smaller marble, this could represent anything that would orbit the big object. Now, if you were to place the marble near the big object, you will see that it’ll slowly move closer to the object, this represents the gravitational pull of the big object, this means that the bigger the mass (bigger weight) the more it warps spacetime (bends the rubber sheet) thus, creating a greater gravitational pull for orbiting planets (marble). For a black hole, they have a huge amount of mass packed in a small space which bends spacetime so much that nothing can escape its grasp.
How is the theory of relativity used to find black holes?
One of the first instances that used the general theory of relativity to find black holes was used by German astronomer Karl Schwarzschild, who used the general theory of relativity to predict the existence of black holes because black holes have a very strong gravitational field, and since the general theory of relativity talks about how gravity warps spacetime due to heavy mass objects, and since black holes have a very heavy mass, which explains why they have a strong gravitation field, the general theory of relativity can be used to not only detect where black holes are, but they have also helped us understand the properties of them, which is why most of what we know of black holes comes from studies that were based on Einstein’s general theory of relativity.
(note for the video: GR is short for general relativity)
As you see in the photo it displays the effect that different objects have on spacetime, and how that affects light that passes by. In the image on the top, where it shows the sun’s bend on space time, you can also see that the lights path is altered as it goes through the sun’s warped space-time. Now on the black hole, it shows that passed the singularity, it has an infinite bend on space time, which also would make their gravitational pull so strong, that not even light can escape it which is shown on the image at the bottom.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, Einstein’s general theory of relativity helps us understand how the mass of an object warps space time and how that effects things like light passing by, which is what we have used to understand and find where black holes are because of their major warping of space time and also how they effect light passing by. Knowing this could help us have safer travels through space in the future because for instance, if we developed the technology to travel to a new solar system near ours, it would be good to know if along our path there would be a black hole, so we would know what parts to avoid on our journey there, or even if there is a black hole in the solar system, then, we might not want to explore that specific solar system.