Nick Hoff said:
:
:Damn. This was on Jeporady last night. I'm probably stupid but, black
:holes are created when a star explodes. After the super nova of light, a
:rip in the fabric of space is created from the expulshion of ligt that
:sucks in light to balance the fabric out again. Of course, I may be
:stupid. Don't be afraid to tell me if I am. 

    Following this take, the black hole would then cease to exist
    after "sucking in" an amount of light (or mass/energy) equal to
    the amount lost in the explosion.  But would it?  Current theory
    dictates that the size of the event horizon is proportional to
    its mass.  A black hole by its nature attracts mass/energy.  So
    the more it attracts, the larger it grows (oddly enough, black
    holes have no volume).  I think Hawkings originally proposed
    that black holes would grow until the end of time, eventually
    sucking in the whole universe.  Pretty grim.  But he later
    discovered that when virtual particles get sucked into a black
    hole, it actually contributes negative energy into the system.
    The result is that black holes eventually evaporate!

    Could LHWs be composed of virtual particles, operating at
    perhaps superstring levels of reality?  ^_^

    Of course, if you like a certain person on this ML who don't
    believe in black holes unless you could *see* "hard evidence",
    then this is totally irrelevant to your perception of reality.


___/^_^\___ Eugene Lee
            zangief@netcom.com