Nah really it was probably some small thing the media got a hold of and just ran with. I think you’re spot on
Comment on well?
procrastitron@lemmy.world 20 hours ago
I took a physics course at a community college over 20 years ago and one of the things that stood out to me was the professor telling us not to overthink or assign too much romanticism to the idea of black holes.
His message was basically “it just means the escape velocity is greater than the speed of light… if you plug the size and mass of the universe into the escape velocity formula, the result you get back is greater than the speed of light, so our entire universe is a black hole.”
If this was being discussed at a community college decades ago then I think the new discoveries aren’t as revelatory as they would at first appear to the general public.
scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech 20 hours ago
Klear@lemmy.world 19 hours ago
And a relevant smbc for good measure.
prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 hours ago
Where’s PBF?
abbadon420@sh.itjust.works 8 hours ago
Smbc is Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal, but what does xkcd stand for?
Klear@lemmy.world 7 hours ago
It’s a random unique string, chosen to make the comic easily searchable.
atomicbocks@sh.itjust.works 19 hours ago
On the contrary; while I have heard the explanation that the commenter you replied to has said I have also heard a slightly different theory:
Our universe is the 3 dimensional event horizon of a 4th dimensional black hole. By extension we may find that black holes in our universe have similar funky 2 dimensional areas at their even horizons.
I am sure clickbait articles are part of it but there also seems to be several actual theories surrounding the idea of the nature of our universe relating to black holes.
beejboytyson@lemmy.world 19 hours ago
Our universe is 4 d not 3 d
MotoAsh@lemmy.world 18 hours ago
3+1, not 4D (we cannot move freely in time). They’re referencing the holographic universe theory, or holographic principle. PBS Spacetime has a good episode on the holographic universe theory.
Cethin@lemmy.zip 8 hours ago
Three spacial dimensions, which is normally what people mean when they say that, unless they specify otherwise. For example, we call them 3D game engines, not 4D. Yes, there’s also a time dimension that is special. It cannot be moved through freely.
vala@lemmy.world 14 hours ago
Nah, this universe is 3d.
I’m assuming you are thinking that time is the 4th dimension and we have time here so we are 4d?
Time may be the 4th dimension, but in our universe, time doesn’t actually behave like a proper dimension. For one thing, dimensions should be spatially perpendicular to each other and time is not. We also seem to only be able to move one way through time whereas we can move back and forth through the other 3 dimensions.
Dimensions get weird and complicated. For the intents and purposes of this conversation it’s correct to say that the universe were experiencing now is 3 dimensional.
PleaseLetMeOut@lemmy.dbzer0.com 18 hours ago
Yes, but if you’re beyond the event horizon time becomes basically* irrelevant. You could literally turn around, look back out towards the rest of he universe, and watch all of time play out in the blink of an eye.
You know that scene in Interstellar where they land on the planet for 5 minutes, but 20 years passes for everyone else due to the planet’s mass? It’s the same thing, but a billion-billion-billion times more severe.
webghost0101@sopuli.xyz 18 hours ago
Do you have any idea how little that narrows things down?
dutchkimble@lemy.lol 8 hours ago
Orr, you’re missing the obvious alternative here - the guy was a legendary level scientist, but the government stole his research and threatened his family and sidelined him into being a community college professor so that no one pays attention to his “drivel” so that they continue to control us into being workers for the capitalist pigs
sudo_halt@lemmygrad.ml 5 hours ago
Would make for a decent flick, get Hollywood on the call
OrteilGenou@lemmy.world 3 hours ago
When I first saw pictures of galaxies as a kid I noticed they all looked like black holes.
In a way we’re all just bits of organic matter mid-flush, waiting for the Drainpipe of Destiny
MintyFresh@lemmy.world 2 hours ago
In a way we’re all just bits of organic matter mid-flush, waiting for the Drainpipe of Destiny
Word
SkaveRat@discuss.tchncs.de 17 hours ago
another thing I learned at some point: Just because a physics formula returns a result, doesn’t mean that it’s reality
ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world 14 hours ago
TBF black holes themselves were originally just the result of a Physics formula, but they eventually turned out to be a “reality”. Sometimes that shit happens, yo.
Cethin@lemmy.zip 8 hours ago
Iff the rules of physics are accurate then it does, but we don’t know that they are. In fact, we’re pretty sure we’re missing some things. See: The Crisis in Cosmology.
TachyonTele@piefed.social 20 hours ago
Theory is one thing.
Observation is the next step.procrastitron@lemmy.world 20 hours ago
Absolutely. I don’t want to minimize the importance of the new discoveries in any way; I’m just saying this isn’t the great surprise the original post seems to think it is.
Olhonestjim@lemmy.world 18 hours ago
Interestingly, galaxies at the edge of our ability to perceive are in fact receding away from us at velocities greater than the speed of light.
monkeyslikebananas2@lemmy.world 17 hours ago
Maybe it’s because they are outside the black hole and aren’t time dilated.
Quadhammer@lemmy.world 17 hours ago
Wouldn’t that mean if we can see them that light can enter/escape a black hole?
procrastitron@lemmy.world 17 hours ago
Entering and escaping are two wildly different things.
It can enter, but not escape.
Ledivin@lemmy.world 16 hours ago
Light can enter a black hole perfectly fine. We would be able to see things outside of it, because the light is still following us, but no light leaves the black hole, so you can’t see into it.
gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 15 hours ago
squaresinger@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
Journalist: What is context?
OrteilGenou@lemmy.world 3 hours ago
It balances out protext, figure it out rookie
squaresinger@lemmy.world 3 hours ago
Protext is what the really good journalists are writing.