Week+2

Week 2

Imagine a golf ball. That's easy right? Now you probably could lift that golf ball many times without straining. Now imagine that golf ball weighing more than a skyscraper. That's not so easy, because such a thing is not possible here on earth. Out in space, however, this is possible. They are called back holes.

A black hole starts from a star, one that is many times bigger than the sun. At the beginning of the star's life, it blazes for a 10 to 20 billion years. After it lived it's life as being a star, it blows up! At this stage, the star is officially a supernova. After a short period of exploding and releasing radioactive waves, it suddenly shrinks. It becomes smaller and smaller. In fact, it shrinks so much that it's gravity completely crushes it's core! Now, it's a black hole. Here's a short clip to show you a supernova turning into a black hole. media type="youtube" key="dtZtCSN9E1o" height="344" width="425" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtZtCSN9E1o

Although black holes may be huge, there are black holes many more times bigger than a regular black hole. These black holes are called a super massive black holes, as you learned last week. The formation of a super massive black hole is a mystery, but it may look something like this,by two black holes swerving into each other. media type="youtube" key="DxYwdgHpbKM" height="344" width="425" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxYwdgHpbKM&feature=related

If you didn't notice, the time in this clip is in millions of years. Therefore, this formation took place over more than a billion years.

These kind of black holes are rare, especially when there's usually only one in an entire galaxy. Scientist now conclude that there must be a dominant super massive black hole in the center of our galaxy, the Milky Way. As scientist now believe, super massive black holes actually take part in the creations of the galaxies, including the one you live in right now! Many people didn't even believe super massive black holes for their sheer size is as big as the solar system it's self! By the looks of it, it could destroy the fabric of the universe.

The end of a black hole is mysterious, but as scientist believe, they simply evaporate into nowhere! How? Well, black holes do not just eat in it's life and do not do anything else. It spits out radiation. As a black hole starts to vaporize, it starts to radiate more and more quickly. Eventually, it becomes no more. Nobody actually knows what happens to black holes when they die. Some say that a little bit of it remains, ready to mix into another black hole. Others say that it completely disappears, period. Not trace is left behind.

My sources:

Info source(s): "BLACK HOLES." __Berkeley Cosmology Group__. 16 Feb. 2009 .

Video source(s): "YouTube - Baby Black Hole." __YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.__ 16 Feb. 2009 .

"YouTube - 2 Spiral Galaxies w/Supermassive Black Holes Collide." __YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.__ 16 Feb. 2009 .

Week Assignment:

Now that you have learned a little about the formation of black holes, it's time to do something with that information. You can do 1 or 2 of the 2 activities.

1. Answer these questions based on what was learned today. How do black holes form? What do you think the look of the end of the black hole looks like? Does it disappear entirely or do you think that some of it stays? Define a super massive black hole. How does a super massive black hole form?

2. Show your knowledge by making a short article about how back holes are formed and vaporized.

Once you're done, you can have some fun with this little game. It partially represents way of a black hole. If the "star" gets too close to the black hole, it get's sucked in, but if it is close, but no quite enough to get sucked in, it will revolve around it.

http://www.colorado.edu/physics/2000/waves_particles/wavpart2.html