Researcher shows that black holes do not exist

[Machiavelli]

Thania Benios
Phys.org
September 24, 2014

Black holes have long captured the public imagination and been the subject of popular culture, from Star Trek to Hollywood. They are the ultimate unknown – the blackest and most dense objects in the universe that do not even let light escape. And as if they weren't bizarre enough to begin with, now add this to the mix: they don't exist.

By merging two seemingly conflicting theories, Laura Mersini-Houghton, a physics professor at UNC-Chapel Hill in the College of Arts and Sciences, has proven, mathematically, that black holes can never come into being in the first place. The work not only forces scientists to reimagine the fabric of space-time, but also rethink the origins of the universe.

More, with reader comments

[GourmetDan]

The work not only forces scientists to reimagine the fabric of space-time, but also rethink the origins of the universe.

I hate when that happens...

[Machiavelli]

A surge of attacks against classical GR (General Relativity)
Luboš Motl
The Reference Frame
September 29, 2014

... Well, even 90 years isn't enough, it seems, so right now, we are entering new waters – the denial of some basic results of general relativity, our modern theory of gravity that has been around and available to everyone since 1916. So in the last week, hundreds of publications informed their readers that it's been "mathematically proven" that the big bang theory is wrong and the black holes don't exist.

These nutty claims boil down to some papers by a crackpot named Ms Laura Mersini-Houghton (no, I really, really won't accept her doctorate) who had previously claimed that she could see an opening of a wormhole leading to another Universe in some cold spots in the CMB (which aren't that cold at all, and even if they were, the interpretation was totally silly).

She wrote some totally idiotic preprints claiming that the Hawking radiation prevents a star from forming a black hole. It's just a staggeringly stupid claim. For a stellar size black hole (by the mass), it takes something like 10¹⁰⁰ years for it to evaporate via the Hawking radiation. On the other hand, the collapse time may be comparable to seconds, a very short timescale, so be sure that almost nothing changes about the distribution of matter thanks to the Hawking radiation even if you could exactly define what you consider to be the Hawking radiation in this short, initial, out-of-equilibrium phase.

While this crank got exactly the same treatment in the media as Albert Einstein in the New York Times after Eddington's 1919 expedition has confirmed the bending of light predicted by the 1916 GR, I don't want to discuss this any further because if someone is incapable of producing some right arguments why the claim is preposterous, he won't understand the explanations by someone else, anyway. If someone thinks that he understands some science but he is willing to change his opinion about the very existence of black holes right after he or she reads some inkspiller's rant in the newspapers, he is a dangerous lunatic and I don't want to interact with such a dangerous lunatic without a firearm in my hands...

Full article, with reader comments

[aligncare]

The reader comments alone make my palms sweat ... and I've taken all the standard college courses in physics, astronomy, chemistry. Plus, seen Cosmos and all the cable science programs on cosmology.

Dang, I like the Big Bang theory. It seems to recapitulate nicely biblical creation. Gee, I hope they don't toss out the Big Bang theory, like the way they demoted Pluto. (although, I read that recently Pluto's been voted back to planet status, though now it's categorized as only a dwarf planet.)

[evadR]

Damn!! Just Damn!!!

[rangerrebew]

They are, too, real and are caused by global warming.

[PzLdr]

That's racist!

[Dexter]

There are still super dense objects at the center of galaxies that whip and throw stars around with ease. This paper is not suggesting that what we have observed and called blacks holes are not actually there, just that our understanding of them is flawed. What she is saying is just that they never collapse further than the state that gravity can overcome the speed of light. The title is a bit sensationalist.

[NavyCanDo]

They can revise theories of space all they want and it doesn't bother me,  as long as they don't destroy my belief that the planet where the Orion Slave Girls live, really does exist.

[evadR]

They can revise theories of space all they want and it doesn't bother me,  as long as they don't destroy my belief that the planet where the Orion Slave Girls live, really does exist.

V E N A...
she is real

[evadR]

She and Captain Pike have 3 kids now.
The planet is doing well.