Theos-Talk Archives (February 2002 Message tt00836)

Steve Stubbs wrote:
> 
> 
> My understanding is that if one were to get in a space
> ship and head for a black hole, because of the
> distortions in the space time continuum, you would
> never actually get there. As you approached it, time
> would slow down so that you spent eternity approaching
> it asymptotically (if "eternity" has any meaning here)
> but never actually arrive. So the SR could in one
> sense be said to be the end of the universe.

Hi Steve and list,
Perhaps I'm not the more skilled to say something in this area but I'll
do anyway :). The problem here is that your are describing what an
*observer* (not the mad guy who is actually sinking in the black hole)
sees. And that is correct. But for the "pilot" he will perceive that he
is passing through the SR.

> I also understand that any amount of matter produce
> such a phenomenon (a point at which gravity causes
> time and space to disappear), so that there is an SR
> in our own planet. The difference is that it is
> within the planet (whereas it is exterior to the black
> hole) and is extremely minute, given that the amount
> of matter in a planet is so small compared to the
> matter in a black hole, which may be an entire galaxy.

Well, I think it's not so simple. As you said the point is the density
of matter, not just the amount of it. Even a neutron star (with density
millions of times of that of palladium - the denser natural occuring
element) is *not* a black hole. But if we think at the begining of the
Universe, accepting the Big-Bang Theory, we could guess that the
Singularity which gave birth to the actual Universe, was a black hole.
So if smeone asks: "how is the interior of a black hole?" we can answer
simply "look around"..
Light and Peace,
Pedro