Slashdot Mirror
New Type of Star Can Emerge From Inside Black Holes, Say Cosmologists
KentuckyFC writes "Black holes form when a large star runs out of fuel and collapses under its own weight. Since there is no known force that can stop this collapse, astrophysicists have always assumed that it forms a singularity, a region of space that is infinitely dense. Now cosmologists think quantum gravity might prevent this complete collapse after all. They say that the same force that stops an electron spiraling into a nucleus might also cause the collapsing star to 'bounce' at scales of around 10^-14cm. They're calling this new state a 'Planck star' and say its lifetime would match that of the black hole itself as it evaporates. That raises the possibility that the shrinking event horizon would eventually meet the expanding Planck star, which emerges with a sudden blast of gamma rays. That radiation would allow any information trapped in the black hole to escape, solving the infamous information paradox. If they're right, these gamma rays may already have been detected by space-based telescopes meaning that the evidence is already there for any enterprising astronomer to tease apart."
So decaying black holes might be another source of gamma ray bursts? Interesting hypothesis. I suppose this would permit a big old star to bounce between being a black hole and a neutron star, depending on the rate of incoming material.
So, do I have to point out the obvious that the /. beta is horribly user-hostile to keep this from getting modded -1 insightful?
What TFS really means is that out of the suck generated by Beta, a new site will emerge, free from corporate cocksuckery.
Beta: Only slightly better than Facetwat.
The "Civilized World" jumped the shark ca. 1973.
Slashdot's Beta has proved that it is possible for information to be sucked in and never get out.
WTF is up with article titles that only the first 3 words are visible because of the huge font used?
Slashdot beta - the artificial blackhole created by Dice that Slashdot will be sucked into
If there is a force that can prevent the total collapse of a star into a singularity, there is hope that we can harness such power to escape from beta...