Black holes

[smenkhare]

Hi.
Can someone explain to me what may be a very stupid question.

Are black holes supposed to be actual physical objects in space or mathematical concepts? Different things I read seem to suggest both ways.

Thanks.
Pete

[FlashDrive]

Peter..... ( Physically ) according to the ' Astronomical Experts ' ...black holes do exist and have so much ' mass ' that the object collapses in on itself to a point of no return ( point of singularity ) ....at the ' edge ' it's called ' the event horizon....go beyond that and the ' black hole will swallow everything up....and there's no escape....apparently not even light can escape from a black hole.

Some have suggested that on the ' other side ' of a black hole is an ' alternative Universe. Black Holes vary in size....some are so big that they ' swallow ' other stars and ' distort ' galaxies. They even ' roam ' about space ' gobbling ' up everything in their path.

As far as being mathematical concept....everything can be ' reduced ' to a mathematical concept.....just ask a Quantum Physicists or a Professor of Mathamatics......but as for me....I'm not sure about that one.

Flash.......

[sjastro]

The maths behind Black Holes originated to describe the curvature of space-time around massive bodies such as the Sun. The mathematics contained two singularities which early researchers including Einstein dismissed as having no physical significance.
It was decades later that researchers began to explore the physical significance of the singularities.
One of these singularities was found to be a "mathematical singularity" which would disappear by changing the coordinate system describing space-time, the other a "physical singularity" remained.

The answer to your question is both.

One cannot categorically state that Black Holes exist although the indirect evidence is overwhelming, from the Keplarian orbits of stars at the centre of our galaxy around a supermassive yet undetectable object, to the absence of signature X-ray emissions in certain X-ray binary systems which can only be explained if one of the objects has an event horizon.

Regards

Steven

[smenkhare]

Thanks.