Black Holes & Black Hole Jets

[mrcurious]

First is a black hole cylindrical or flat? I always thought it to be cylindrical because science states at the end of the black hole is the "singularity."<br /><br />A program called supermassive black holes, described gravity as a "space time web that massive objects put dents into it. While a super massive black hole, would stretch gravity to the breaking point." The program then showed what that would look like, which was a bottomless pit traveling through the very fabric of space. <br /> Which then lead me to the next question......How would a black have a jet of plasma shooting out of it from the other end? I understand electromagnetism is stronger than gravity, so that could explain how magnetism could cause a plasma jet to shoot out from the mouth of the black hole.....but the other end as well? Wouldn't that mean the black hole was flat and that matter doesn't go into the hole venturing ultimately to the singularity, but instead it gets converted into these plasma jets? I understand black holes are one of the biggest mysteries in the universe. Its why I've been paying so much attention to cosmology & astronomy in recent years. Its so much better than science fiction!

 

[heyscottie]

First of all, a black hole is spherical. If a black hole spins, which is the usual case, then it will be flattened out somewhat, which would make it an ellipsoid.<br /><br />The visual of black holes making dents into a 2-D wire mesh can sometimes be misleading. Black holes warp space in all 3 dimensions, but we don't have an easy way to show that in a picture.<br /><br />Threre is no "mouth" to a black hole, and there is no "other end" either.<br /><br />The plasma jets are electromagnetic phenomena, in part, but it is important to note that they DO NOT come from the black hole itself. They come from NEAR the black hole, and will tend to line up parallel to the black hole's axis of rotation. Nothing that falls into the black hole's event horizon will come back out -- gravity is the ultimate force in this instance. Things that have not yet fallen in are free to be accelerated by the gigantic forces present around the black hole, and can be ejected along plasma jets.

 

[nexium]

Heyscotie gave a good explanation. The singularity is at the mass center of the the sphere or sphereoid which is the boundry beyond nothing can escape the black hole.<br />A few of your quotes are missleading if not wrong. Gravity does not break. The pit has a bottom at the singularity. Super massive black holes are gentle near the event horizon compared to solar mass black holes. Neil

 

[mrcurious]

Thanks for the education. I was searching for a better understanding of what I was seeing and hearing.

 

[derekmcd]

To expand a bit on heyscottie's explanation:<br /><br />A black hole has 3 main characteristics:<br /><br />The Singularity which is thought to be the point-like center of the black hole containing all the mass in infinite density.<br /><br />The Event Horizon which is a non- physical boundry which nothing (not even light) can escape the pull of gravity from the singularity. The force of gravity at and beyond the Event Horizon is so strong that the escape velocity is greater than the speed of light.<br /><br />The Accretion Disc (assuming the black hole is still actively accreting matter) is the infalling matter 'swirling' towards the Event Horizon. The plasma jets are a by-product of this infalling matter. A rotating black hole swirls the infalling matter around the event horizon as such high speeds that the matter become highly energized and superheated (plasma). It is believed a magnetic field created by this superheated, fast swriling plasma launches these x-ray jets (they are detected at the x-ray end of the spectrum) from the polar axis' of the black hole. Astrophysicists are still trying to work out the exact details. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <div> </div><br /><div><span style="color:#0000ff" class="Apple-style-span">"If something's hard to do, then it's not worth doing." - Homer Simpson</span></div> </div>

 

[alokmohan]

Back hoes usally spin as you say.Not much is known infact.None has ever seen a black hole.But black hole is determined by 3 things.Spin or not,Charged or not.We have three types of black hole .