Celebrity science quiz

Eric, Salinas, CA — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 19:01:40 GMT

Oh Alan have you never heard the saying to be careful what you wish for? Actually a brash but innovative feature that hopefully will become a regular weekly feature so that we know ahead of time to think about things we see or hear that we can bring back here to post queries on.

I really enjoy that Stephen Colbert gets a mention here in the Cosmic Log. He really did a great job of helping NASA promote their node naming contest. I remember there were only about 60,000 votes tallied when I first logged on to vote the day after Colbert made his vote suggestion, and that was after several weeks of that site being up and counting. In about the same time afterwards he helped get over a million votes tallied. I was a tad bummed that NASA didn't go with the winning Colbert name but was gratified that they dissed Serenity as well as that was the most disgusting excuse for a science fiction show ever made. It was kind of funny that NASA kind of pulled his leg for a while by suggesting that maybe they could name the urine processor after him. I did enjoy that they named that new spiffy excercise machine after him and he was really a good sport having Sunita Williams announce the actual winning name of Tranquility on his show this week.

Here's a burning question I have been contemplating on for a while. A question I wish I could pose to Stephen Hawking. What is the inside of a black hole like? What happens to matter as it passes through the event horizon, beyond the spaghettification effect? The History Channel runs a great series called "Universe" and one of the shows was on our solar system and gave a great description of the layers of all the planets. In the big gas giants they have cores of metallic hydrogen, how the heck does a gas get turned into a metal? It seems that the pressure crunches down the hydrogen atoms in some manner that causes them to turn solid. In thinking about black holes and what's inside I keep thinking back to those metallic hydrogen cores and think that somehow the atoms that pass through the event horizon must have all of the space squeezed out of them as that seems to be the only way to retain the mass effect without all the volume. Does Hawking Radiation represent this "space" between the nuclear core of the proton/neutron and the orbiting electrons getting squeezed out of the atom? I wonder if in some way the inside of a black hole is solid, similar to the way our gas giants have gases that are solid at the core. Could it be that the sub-subatomic particles like quarks and muons and gluons get separated out and become a somewhat solid center?

Keep up the great work here at Cosmic Log Alan and I sure hope that by posting my burning question someone somewhere may come up with some smart answers.

Celebrity science quiz

darrel armstrong, missoula, mont. — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 07:07:42 GMT

Eric, the answer is "No, it doesn't happen like that."

Celebrity science quiz

Alan Boyle — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 05:11:11 GMT

Wow, now that is a question ... Metallic hydrogen is under incredible pressure, but as far as I know we're not talking about molecular-scale gravitational collapse or any sort of weird sub-subatomic effect.

Here's more about metallic hydrogen:
http://access.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Stories/MetalHydrogen/Hydrogen.html

As for what's inside a black hole's event horizon, you're right that that's pure speculation. The spaghettification is described by Neil Tyson in this story:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16971750/

As the stream of spaghettified atoms passes through the event horizon, that stream may leave some sort of imprint in fluctuations at the horizon ... this gets to the holographic principle:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holographic_principle

I wonder if the material falling into the black hole "deposits" its information in the horizon fluctuations and takes on an undifferentiated or weird state ... the information would be liberated as Hawking radiation as the black hole dissipates. I'm totally waving my hands here, but just trying to put this out there and hoping that someone more knowledgeable will chime in.

Celebrity science quiz

Jerry Williamson, Southport, NC — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 18:03:41 GMT

My limited understanding is that nothing is ever "lost", it merely changes into some other form or matter. We put liquid gasoline in our cars and it gets burned as it produces power. It is then expelled through the exhaust system but you don't see it come out. Could a black hole work in a similar way? Is "dark matter" simply the exhaust from black hole? Just a thought.

Celebrity science quiz

ROBERT BROGANCE,DAYTON,OHIO — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 14:56:09 GMT

THE CURIOSITY ABOUT THE UNIVERSE IS HUMAN, HOWEVER, WHY NOT THE SAME IN SOLVING OUR EARTH PROBLEMS AS OUR FIRST CURIOSITY.

Celebrity science quiz

Average GuyY2k, Mpls,MN — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 18:36:18 GMT

FYI TO PEOPLE EVERYWHERE! Don't panic, don't think too much and hurt yourselves. Think, learn and Adapt. You know seconds,minutes,hours,weeks,months(calendar and lunar), years,centuries,seasons & cycles. Now find some science books that show how ice ages and hot decades as well as how many times our Earths magnetic poles have changed. All that 2012 is our solar system has made its galactic or universal cycle. So guess what, we do need to try and take care and not poop all over and inside of the Earth. We do need to use old and new technology to conserve and preserve the planet's resources. But the human race's contribution to global warming is minor in the grand scheme of things. Just look for the reset button on the Mayan calendar. It is just a guide to get us to this point and hopefully we can improve it as we endure the next galactic cycle. But yes, there will always be Earth changes and hopefully we can figure out how to move vast populations peacefully when weather cycles go into a negative mode for decades at a time. Call it common sense or garage logic the world is full of ingenious and inventive people. We should survive as long as good, resposible people are elected to lead the countries of this world. Thanks Alan! Keep up the good and interesting work.

Celebrity science quiz

Dr Fell, Florence — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 23:17:44 GMT

"As for what's inside a black hole's event horizon, you're right that that's pure speculation. The spaghettification is described by Neil Tyson in this story: "

well if that's correct, then we shall probably find the giant flying spaghetti monster waving his noodly tentacle

Celebrity science quiz

Andrew Easton,Edmond,Oklahoma — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 01:33:50 GMT

It is where the grand unified theory's of the large scale univerce and quantum machanics meet. Modern scince can't make two theory's work together at all. since gravity,the atom and quantum machanics obviosly do come together in a black hole, there must be somthing they are missing.If you could know what was going on in a black hole, you'd be the next Newton,Instine or Hawking.