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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.
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.
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.
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).
Interesting culture you've got there. Where I work the theorists/computational groups find the experimentalists indispensible and vice versa. The experimentalists provide the grounding in reality and provide the final fruition of all the theory/computer work. The theory+computation guides the experiments and increases the odds that the experiments'll work the first time out. Everyone's better off, and everyone knows it, with the exception of just one guy who's generally hard to deal with anyway (even the other experimentalists don't get on with him.)
--PM
Don't worry, the universe itself will travel back and time and prevent it. Think about it... Mr. Universe... time travel. It's Arnold. He's the one stopping the LHC.
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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?
i wonder if they checked for gravity/mass/time disturbances?
The first Black Hole invented by man is called Government.
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.
There's nothing to see.
Ha! I crack myself up.
Genesis 1:32 And God typed
It certainly works where your mom is concerned.
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 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.
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.
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!
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?
------ The best brain training is now totally free : )
I believe elrous0 was referring to the timeline of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, wherein all the dolphins leave Earth just before the Vogons destroy it.
You can never go home again... but I guess you can shop there.
Well, if you'd just pull your head out of your ...
Oh. Never mind. Keep looking.
Shop as usual. And avoid panic buying.