By now you might have an idea of how much I have always loved science and technology.
So for geeks, the recent unveiling of the first ever photograph of a black hole was like that childhood dream of swimming in a pool of chocolate.
Black holes are one of the true mysteries of the universe, so this was truly the science story of the century.
The photograph was made public on 10 April, after a global collaboration of radio telescopes aimed at achieving this goal.
I was also very pleased to hear that a South African was one of the more than 200 scientists who made a significant contribution towards the discovery.
But I will admit, it would have been nice if more locals were involved, especially considering that we have the Meerkat and part of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) right here on our doorstep.
They managed to take a picture of the black hole using several radio telescopes all over the world.
When the SKA is up and running, it will be the world’s biggest radio telescope and astronomers will be able to survey larger portions of the sky much, much faster.
Just imagine what discoveries will still be made, and with significant input from us!
And that is why I always encourage young people to get involved in any field of science.
Here are my favourite fun facts about black holes:
- Since their gravity is so intense that not even light can escape, you can’t actually see them with the naked eye.
- Our physics (specifically Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity) led us to this discovery, but our physics fail us inside black holes.
- Essentially a collapsed ball of condensed matter, nobody knows for certain what happens inside black holes.
- Theoretically, once you cross the outer edge (Event Horizon), time and space changes so fundamentally that we may have to invent new science to explain it.
- In fact, it’s possible that most of what we consider to be reality takes on a very different meaning inside a black hole.
- Some theories speculate that inside the centre (Singularity), is a new and different or parallel dimension (yes, that is a reference to the multi-verse that is so beloved by science fiction).
- More theories reckon the Singularity is the entry to a wormhole that will allow us to travel enormous distances by bending space. In other words, a Star Trek-type Hyper-Drive that will allow future humans to easily galaxy-hop.
- Even more fantastically, there are theories suggesting that black hole singularities may allow for space-time manipulation; yes, people, I’m talking about time travel here; and, yes, time travel is theoretically possible.
- But the most fun fact about black holes, is that if you fell into one, you would officially be “Speghettified,” which is a genuine term that was invented specifically to describe what would happen to the human body.