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First Black Hole For Light Created On Earth
An anonymous reader writes "An electromagnetic 'black hole' that sucks in surrounding light has been built for the first time. The device, which works at microwave frequencies, may soon be extended to trap visible light, leading to an entirely new way of harvesting solar energy to generate electricity. A theoretical design for a table-top black hole to trap light was proposed in a paper published earlier this year by Evgenii Narimanov and Alexander Kildishev of Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. Their idea was to mimic the properties of a cosmological black hole, whose intense gravity bends the surrounding space-time, causing any nearby matter or radiation to follow the warped space-time and spiral inwards."
That sucks ...
They need to stop calling it a black hole or the ignorant masses will decide it's going to end the world.
The summary is word for word the first three paragraphs in the article. The titles are also the same. Dangerous ground to tread on, CmdrTaco.
My work here is dung.
tha the theory about the existence of dark suckers is true!
...only this one sucks in light!!!
How much energy does it "take?" Its a metamaterial structure, and the refractive properties are caused by its shape alone.
... so if you were going to put a solar panel in the middle, as the article describes, then it will likely require cooling if its placed in bright conditions.
That said, all that incident EM radiation is gonna really heat it up
Unless they're very clever with creating it, such that only wavelengths usable by the solar panel are refracted into the centre. Anyway, if they think they can do that by the end of 2009, can they make me a man-sized invisible hamsterball? Invisible zorbing would be an interesting experience.
Maybe it's because I happen to be an experimentalist (and we're always at odds with the theorists/ computer simulation/ computational analysis groups) but shouldn't Cui and Cheng's names be attached with the summary? I mean, having the idea for a box that won't let light escape is great, but actually building it is far more impressive to me.
It uses no energy once it's built as far as I can tell. It takes a series of materials that guides light (or electromagnetic radiation not in visible spectrum yet) and directs it into the center of the device which turns it into...well, currently heat. In a while when they get the visible light spectrum version working they will probably have the core be a solar panel so they can turn light into electricity.
I don't think HeeChee references are that obscure.
can they make me a man-sized invisible hamsterball? Invisible zorbing would be an interesting experience.
Actually it would be a black hamsterball.
And if that's the objective for 2009, it's quite easier to achieve by simply painting it black. Anyway, you'll just end up with a pretty pissed off hamster.
Didn't these guys pay attention to the media? It's the Large Hadron Accelerator that is supposed to create the Earth-destroying black hole...
Why, without your clothes, you're naked, Miss Dudley!
This might very well be the Last Post...
Prepare for unforeseen consequences....
I THINK ITS QUITE OVIOUS that he wasn't trying to pass off those words as his own. Apologies to TFA.
But I have definite issues with the last paragraph of the article
The article gives no indication that light passing near the device will get sucked into it, but only that all light hitting the device gets sucked into the center. So instead of requiring those huge parabolic mirrors, you'll instead require these huge cylindrical structures. Would still have a nice advantage in that no tracking or steering devices would be required since light hitting it from any side gets "sucked in", but it would still require a considerable amount of real estate to deploy assuming that they can both scale it down (to handle visible light) and scale it up (to make the amount of light absorbed represent a non-trivial amount of power).
If it DOES get really hot, sounds like a co-generation opportunity. Hot water and electricity from the same roof unit.
How much energy would THAT save an average household??
--PM
The interesting thing to me is that the molecule plants use for photosynthesis has some spiral-like structures. Those could be guiding visible light in the same way.
Not that that helps solar power's number one problem, which is energy storage.
Unless they're very clever with creating it, such that only wavelengths usable by the solar panel are refracted into the centre.
That happens by default. Metamaterials only operate correctly on a very narrow band of frequencies.
I don't know why a huge amount of a nano-structured meta-material would be cheaper to make than a large mirror. The device is interesting in it's own right but the application to solar power is a real stretch. It seems like every advance has to claim to be a step on the way to curing cancer or solving the energy crisis to get any attention. Even the article about magnetic monopole quasi-particles tied it back to applications to computing...possible but that certainly isn't why the discovery is interesting.
So if this is the future...where's my jet pack?
Maybe we could use this to absorb any Gamma Ray Bursts that happen to come our way.
Disclaimer: didn't read TFA
#define true false
i wonder if they checked for gravity/mass/time disturbances?
Finally! The quest to find an engine for my perpetual motion machine is over...OVER! Bwahahahahaha.
The first Black Hole invented by man is called Government.
The nincompoops who campaigned against the LHC because of its mythical ability to create black holes will be out in force!
My web domain.
This could easily be the next smoke rounds. Imagine being able to block light past specific points on a battlefield. You could effectively blind the enemy in darkness, or create soft cover for your movements. It would also absorb laser tracking and targeting devices, leaving many modern weapons systems moot.
Make no mistake about it, this is a very important technology for the battle field.
Where can I see it?
I've got 101 mod points and you can't have them!
Tell me it has Ten Chevrons around it and THEN I'll be impressed.
There is a Universal Life Value Check it
Narimanov and Kildishev reasoned that it should be possible to build a device that makes light curve inwards towards its centre in a similar way. They calculated that this could be done by a cylindrical structure consisting of a central core surrounded by a shell of concentric rings.
Superficially, sounds kind of like a Fresnel lens.
Huh? The description you quote seems like a pretty reasonable qualitative description of an astrophysical black hole to me. Black holes have a region of capture orbits outside the horizon, where nearby matter spirals inwards.
Not that astrophysical black holes have anything whatsoever to do with the electromagnetic devices referred to in the article, of course.
There's nothing to see.
Ha! I crack myself up.
Genesis 1:32 And God typed
Scientists and engineers are trying to emulate that trick by designing materials that could constitute the next-next (or next-next-next) generation of stealth. Some of their ideas sound like they sprang from the imaginations of Gene Roddenberry or J.K. Rowling, with phrases like “cloaking device” and “invisibility carpet” popping up as frequently in academic papers as in television scripts and books for kids. Other ideas are more realistic, as researchers devise ways to change an aircraft’s color and blur its outline, confusing the bad guys enough to make them shoot in the wrong direction.
drown - water
bury - soil
suck - air
sip - liquid
??? - light
or does suck work for everything?
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It certainly works where your mom is concerned.
It seems tremendously unlikely that this thing would be cheaper than what it aims to replace. There could possibly be a use for it in certain unusual situations - say, providing solar power to a spacecraft in the outer solar system. You might be able to get sufficient power without having to loft a giant mirror into space. But even in this case, it seems like the standard radiothermal generators would be a better choice.
I doubt it would be cheaper to make, but a mirror reflects light from one direction and if you have concave shape focuses that light at a certain point, but for that to work the light has to be entering from the right direction relative to the focus point (normal straight in the front but doesn't necessarily have to be
This system would work regardless of which direction the light enters from, which means it works under very difuse light source. It also means you don't need a tracking system to keep the mirror at the right angle relative to the sun which would make installation and maintenance costs lower than a tracking mirror system.
These comments are my personal opinions and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the other voices in my head.
and she's buying the stairway to heaven ...
If libertarians are so opposed to effective government, why don't they all move to Somalia?
... it founders on the usual issue - cost effectiveness. Smoke rounds already do this job very well, and they're bound to be a lot cheaper. They're also a lot easier to emplace (can you imagine firing one of these "black hole" deals out of an artillery piece, and having it get to its destination intact?). I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for this to show up on the battlefield.
This black hole that sucks up invisible light would go _great_ with the emperor's new clothes. ;)
Agreed. I came back to read the comments because I had this same though. The article says they could replace the huge parabolic mirrors used in solar collection. So they want to replace a large mirror, with a large fuunnel made of obscure expensive materials? How does that help?
Make tiny black holes with an event horizon of say 1 foot. Then we have the ultimate trashcan. We can dump nuclear wast in it and nothing will come out except for perhaps according to some theories radiation. Which we cannot see or feel so there forth it must be harmless.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Electromagnetic radiation at all frequencies is 'light'. It's just not visible light, which is a narrow band of frequencies.
The more people I meet, the better I like my dog.
This application would, yes. But this is very closely related to the work on designing metamaterials to deflect light around a spherical object rather than to simply absorb it.
It strikes me now that it would be completely back as seen from the inside, however, which would limit its usability unless you mounted cameras around the rim.
It helps get it in new scientist. Thats about it.
no problem. I run around in one all the time. I just use my SEP field generator. Sure, it's not really invisible, but it gets the job done.
I live in Minnesota, and would like to go camping sometimes.
as long as the humpback whales are still here, we're safe
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek_IV:_The_Voyage_Home
let's just hope no all powerful easily angered cetacean loving aliens notice these missing, oops:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baiji#Current_status
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Read TFA. Second, does anyone have a link for the wavelengths of EM radiation that reach the surface of the Earth? The article talks about making the black hole sensitive to light (presumably visible), but is that really necessary? Is the intensity of visible light much higher than other wavelengths. Of course this could simply be a case for making the article more layman friendly.
If this does bend space-time, then it could be used for Alcubierre drive. I wonder if it can nullify gravity too.
Problem is, some of us can see right through those...
Those of us that do IT support for friends & family know that Someone Else's Problems have a nasty habit of becoming Our problems at a moment's notice.
It is pity, that the wish for fame overshadows scientific correctness. Calling this "device" a black hole is like calling a bicycle a space shuttle, because both have wheels. If something is black in certain wavelength, does not mean it is a black-hole.
Not that it is not significant, it surely is, but it is more like a black microwave paint discovery.
If the light will be sucked in completely, then how will the electricity leave the "black-hole"? Won't it be trapped inside it as well?
call it electromagnetic radiation
Also reasonably referred to as "light". You are thinking of "visible light".
OK, black bodies give off radiation, black holes give off radiation, what are these called and do they give off radiation?
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
It replaces the large, parabolic mirror which has a bunch of steering gear with a large, metamaterial collector that requires none. It makes the whole system a lot more "install and forget", removing the maintenance, moving parts, etc. It would also work well for smaller scale installations, and for installations that don't face directly at the sun (north facing, etc.). It would work well on cloudy days, indoors, and in a host of situations that a parabolic focusing arrangement would be impractical or useless.
http://marsandmore.com - Posters of space, spacecraft, and astronomy.
Actually, it would be black on the outside but lit up on the inside......all of the light would be funneled to the core.
It's a lens. It only affects light (electromagnetic radiation).
It's a lens, specifically, that bends light into a spiral path that ends in the middle of the lens. It could presumably be used to amplify light into a small point. The same small point, regardless of the way the light strikes the surface of the lens, making it potentially useful for solid-state light gathering.
I hope they make consumer models of this soon.
Now is only the could work in Cold Fusion and Death Panels!
Cold fusion is what happens when two ice cubes stick together.
Free Martian Whores!
and people thought entropy could never be reversed... how could there be a big bang and no big gnab?
The Chinese paper refers to effectiveness at 18GHz, which just so happens to be in the "K" band of radar frequencies. You know, the one police like to use.
So all these guys need to do is make a dashboard- or grille-mounted radar absorber to obsolete the radar detector and they'll be so rich they'll forget their ultimate goal of destroying the world or whatever.
Village idiot in some extremely smart villages.
Capture orbits have to do with loss of energy by way of gravitational radiation. Gravity around a black hole is just like gravity anywhere else. They do not magically suck things in.
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
Are we looking at the next generation of stealth technology?
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No, wait.
As far as I understand, given that there's no invisibility cloaks working for those frequency and that this is a variation on these device, I doubt the experimenter's claim that they'll be able to build an optical black hole soon..
You sir are wrong!
This electromagnetic radiation either generates a photopositive reaction or it does not.
Under the influence of Post-Cyberpunk Gonzo Journalism
It's just warped, I say! Warped!
Charlie Murphy: Damnit, Rick James, I told you to stop calling me that.
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I want to know what happens when you stick one of these in the microwave... Singularity anyone?
"Freedom in the USA is not the ability to do what you want. It is the ability to stop others from doing what THEY want"
Couldn't this be used in space to absorb radiation and protect spaceship or outposts? I would assume i'd be completely dark underneath the device, but the radiation could be reused to generate electricity and power regular lights....
I'm surprised there haven't been any "sounds like my ex-wife" jokes yet.
Am I the only one thinking about actual Microwave oven applications? A vast majority of microwave ovens leak radiation at levels that can be dangerous to humans [www.radiationtalk.com], so why not make a fortune selling 'safe' microwave ovens with doors lined with this meta-material? (Apart from making all that money on destructive applications, of course).
Doesn't work ... Power is on ... No light from projector ... Oh Shit!
The US government have made it clear that we have no inalienable rights; any we do not defend vigorously will be taken.
So you can funnel in 100% of photons with it. You still have to convert them to electricty somehow so really it's just a really good light focuser for solar panels. The funny thing is, there are already solar panel focusers or light amplifiers or concentrators or whatever they're called that, by area, can do like 3:1 and if this black hole is a square foot of total surface area, it gets a square foot of light at 1:1 and that's it. You'd actually need to attach a mirror or lense focuser to funnel light into the black hole.
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i was just trying to riff on his joke. i failed i guess if you felt the need to correct me more than just laugh, ah well
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
We are on the verge of having true DEDs (Dark Emitting Diodes)
"Your puny", "Don't be shy" and "He just wants"?
Yeah, they're taken.
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Well, if you'd just pull your head out of your ...
Oh. Never mind. Keep looking.
Shop as usual. And avoid panic buying.
First think I thought of when I read the summary...
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
Does anybody think this might eventually be a bad thing? I mean if it sucks in light whats to stop somebody from sticking their hand in it to see what it feels like.
"How much more black could it be? None. None more black."
... the first Black Hole for emotions. I know. I dated her back in high school.
Personally, I want to know a) how I always get sucked (yes, pun intended) into reading these stories and b) why the comments always lower themselves to be puerile almost facebook-like comments on science articles on slashdot of late.
Moved to http://soylentnews.org/. You are invited to join us too!
That's completely untrue. Capture orbits exist for black holes without considering gravitational radiation or other backreaction. They're present in the fully conservative system. This is not Newtonian physics.
At least it's not the ultimate NIMBY - a Nuclear Black Hole.
Something like this could make a really efficient solar sail. If they get it working at that magnitude.
~X~
~X~
DO NOT WANT
Absorb? Reflect? Refract? Transform?
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