How Do We Know Black Holes Exist?

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It's a natural question to ask how we know black holes exist if we can't see them. This video step through the history of thinking on the idea of black holes and our first actual observations of one.

Music Used:

Robert A. Wolf:
http://bit.ly/eoXafK

Craig Sounda Brown:
http://bit.ly/gx62Nd

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• black holes
• astronomy
• cosmology
• space

[AkimboNinjaPWN]

Black holes always kinda freaked me out because of how mysterious they are.

[bsherman2006]

Thanks, as always for a superb video! Hasn't Discovery Channel discovered you yet??

[garymiester7]

@Vanja4life You wouldn't see it, once youre past the event horizon, good luck comin out cause  nothing can escape faster than the speed of light. Besides, the pull would be so great it'd shred you into a long string of particles.

[Vanja4life]

Black holes scare the living shit out of me, but I'd still give anything to actually see one, even if it kills me (and it probably would).

[WarshMeh]

MOUNTAIN DEW CAN!

[sariahsue]

So you need lots of energy and hot gas to create x-rays... so why were we looking for them on the moon? Did astronomers really know so little about it back then, or were there other reasons?

[llparasitell]

@Vern3666 of course it didnt work.. since your computer is not programmed with the laws of relativity, time would seem to stop if you were an observer, observing someone fall into a black hole, but for the person that's falling into it, time would flow normally for him, in fact if he held a clock, you would see it stop, and he would see it at normal speed.

[llparasitell]

@Vern3666 lol noob..

[Vern3666]

I tried to computer model black hole formation. I found it impossible because the equation for acceleration contains time as an element. Gravity slows time. So acceleration toward the black hole slows toward zero and never gets there. So I conclude that Black Holes are a mathematical impossibility.

[DECA0115345]

I get a HUGE headache when thinking of black holes... wouldn't it be able to cave in on itself? If pretty much nothing can escape it, might it suck in space?

[Vern3666]

I have tried to create computer animations of black hole formation. It is not possible because when you consider that material things experience time dilation due to gravity, they can never reach the gravitational singularity predicted for black holes. So they can't exist. It is a mathematical impossibility.