If You Can't See It, Does that Prove It's Really There?

Well, it’s finally happened; positive proof that black holes do not exist.  Please consider that for a moment before going on.

Let me expand on my amazement with that brilliant statement.  A scientist has, mathematically mind you, proved that a theoretical concept whose fundamental physical characteristic is that it cannot be seen does not exist.  Let us recall that Einstein’s theory of gravity predicts the existence of black holes.  And so predicted, they have become the metaphorical rack upon which cosmologists have hung their big bang theory.

Now Professor Laura Mersini-Houghton from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill tells us that our previous understanding of what happens to a really big star when it dies is all wrong.  The theory of black holes is that when a particularly large star (much larger than our Sun) runs out of fuel for its fusion, the star collapses on itself.  The gravity of the collapsed star is so great that nothing can escape, not even light; ergo, black hole.

One of the problems with this theory has been the nagging inconsistency with what we believe to be true at the other end of the universe; the very tiny, tiny world of quantum theory (which for Scott Bakula fans, I’m sorry to say, has nothing to do with time travel) makes gravity impossible.  Tell that to your knees next time step on your own shoe laces.

Without getting too technical, not because I don’t think you can handle it but more because I don’t understand it, it seems that when a very large star collapses on itself it releases a type of radiation (energy) known as Hawking radiation; so called because it was predicted by Professor Stephen Hawking.  “Professor Mersini-Houghton believes the star also sheds mass, so much so that it no longer has the density to become a black hole.” (source).  Therefore, black holes cannot exist.

“So what does this mean, Dale?”  Well quite simply, this:  If someone tells you they saw me at Pure Platinum, it is prima facie evidence that I was not there.  Everybody knows I don’t emit any excess energy anyway.