Looking into the past
Because of a star’s gigantic mass, it affects the objects around it, pulling them in closer, the intensity depending on its density. Eventually, some stars will turn into a black hole, where its escape velocity is faster than the speed of light. When a light beam is flashed enough to one side of the center of the black hole (if you could locate it) to avoid being sucked in by the black hole, it would curve around the black hole, coming very close to the event horizon. This would cause it to either loop around and eventually be sucked in, or be shot out again after curving around the hole.
What if we could look to the edge of a black hole? If accurate enough, we could aim our viewpoint so it would loop around the black hole, and shine directly back towards us, showing us ourselves. And because light doesn’t travel instantaneously, the image we would be looking at would be historic.
And, if our aim was even more accurate, we could allow the light to loop the hole multiple times, then shine back to us, being even older. We could look at the earth 4.5 billion years ago, when it was still forming, or 65 million years ago, to watch the dinosaurs become extinct. We would be able to observe the past, and rightfully, prepare for the future.
Comments (One comment)
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Asif Rahman / April 11th, 2008, 1:55:59 am / #
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