YARD (Yet Another Religious Debate)

[lnk2019]

PiMaster wrote:

I've always thought that black holes condense the matter they consume into an infinitely small point.

@PiMaster: Although the maths would point to such a thing (a singularity), I think the generally accepted notion is that the singularity is caused by a break down in general relativity somewhere. I think Michio Kaku referred to it as an "Abomination", as such a thing is surely impossible. Supposedly the "Quantum Gravity" theory will give us answer when we discover it.

@Xander314: I think I read somewhere that White Holes are just time reversed black holes, althought I've just come across a Wikipedia article stating that Stephen Hawking "argued that the time reverse of a black hole in thermal equilibrium is again a black hole in thermal equilibrium." (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_hole ) so I'm probably wrong! :D

I'm pretty sure that "Hawking Radiation" predicts that Black Holes dissipate over time (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawking_radiation ).

@OP: Here is the first in a series of programs by Stephen Hawking, I found them to be facinating!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jd1tgLQg4ZU

This next one is one of a 3 part series that discusses matter and the internal structure of atoms, althought a bit off topic, I think it brings light onto a few key areas of the universe.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80dS-xZ5-MQ

I hope you enjoy them!

EDIT: Fixed the links.

[anonymous23323124]

I'm pretty sure that "Hawking Radiation" predicts that Black Holes dissipate over time

I think this is correct, but I didn't mention it before as I have never quite understood how it works, and didn't want to be questioned about it and unable to provide an answer ;)

However, I think they can grow as well, which seemed to be how supermassive black holes are formed.

I too thought that a white hole was a time reversed black hole. All I was saying was that as parts of the Schwarzschild solution, the black hole part is not physically impossible, if the body is smaller than the Schwarzschild radius; on the other hand the white hole part is always unphysical unless the body is non existent (which is possible but unlikely as it would require the gravitation structure in question to have always existed).

I have not heard of that remark by Hawking, but I'll take a look :)

EDIT: Just to let you know, two of your links are broken, as the brackets have been absorbed into the link :P