this post was submitted on 21 Jul 2025
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Science Memes

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[–] procrastitron@lemmy.world 0 points 1 month ago (6 children)

I took a physics course at a community college over 20 years ago and one of the things that stood out to me was the professor telling us not to overthink or assign too much romanticism to the idea of black holes.

His message was basically “it just means the escape velocity is greater than the speed of light… if you plug the size and mass of the universe into the escape velocity formula, the result you get back is greater than the speed of light, so our entire universe is a black hole.”

If this was being discussed at a community college decades ago then I think the new discoveries aren’t as revelatory as they would at first appear to the general public.

[–] Olhonestjim@lemmy.world 0 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Interestingly, galaxies at the edge of our ability to perceive are in fact receding away from us at velocities greater than the speed of light.

[–] monkeyslikebananas2@lemmy.world 0 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Maybe it’s because they are outside the black hole and aren’t time dilated.

[–] Quadhammer@lemmy.world 0 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Wouldn't that mean if we can see them that light can enter/escape a black hole?

[–] procrastitron@lemmy.world 0 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Entering and escaping are two wildly different things.

It can enter, but not escape.

[–] Brisket@lemmy.ca 0 points 1 month ago

So that's what Hotel California was about all along?

[–] Ledivin@lemmy.world 0 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Light can enter a black hole perfectly fine - we would be able to see things outside of it, because the light is still following us. No light leaves the black hole (if it's past the event horizon), so you can't see into it.

[–] SkaveRat@discuss.tchncs.de 0 points 1 month ago (2 children)

another thing I learned at some point: Just because a physics formula returns a result, doesn't mean that it's reality

TBF black holes themselves were originally just the result of a Physics formula, but they eventually turned out to be a "reality". Sometimes that shit happens, yo.

[–] Cethin@lemmy.zip 0 points 1 month ago

Iff the rules of physics are accurate then it does, but we don't know that they are. In fact, we're pretty sure we're missing some things. See: The Crisis in Cosmology.

[–] dutchkimble@lemy.lol 0 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Orr, you’re missing the obvious alternative here - the guy was a legendary level scientist, but the government stole his research and threatened his family and sidelined him into being a community college professor so that no one pays attention to his “drivel” so that they continue to control us into being workers for the capitalist pigs

[–] pishadoot@sh.itjust.works 0 points 1 month ago

I mean, the model was first developed in the 70s so maybe not that specific guy

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_hole_cosmology

[–] OrteilGenou@lemmy.world 0 points 1 month ago (1 children)

When I first saw pictures of galaxies as a kid I noticed they all looked like black holes.

In a way we're all just bits of organic matter mid-flush, waiting for the Drainpipe of Destiny

[–] MintyFresh@lemmy.world 0 points 1 month ago

In a way we're all just bits of organic matter mid-flush, waiting for the Drainpipe of Destiny

Word

[–] TachyonTele@piefed.social 0 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Theory is one thing.
Observation is the next step.

[–] procrastitron@lemmy.world 0 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Absolutely. I don’t want to minimize the importance of the new discoveries in any way; I’m just saying this isn’t the great surprise the original post seems to think it is.

[–] scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech 0 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Nah really it was probably some small thing the media got a hold of and just ran with. I think you're spot on

[–] Klear@lemmy.world 0 points 1 month ago (4 children)
[–] msage@programming.dev 0 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Your SMBC link doesn't work for me, it just opens the index.

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[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 0 points 1 month ago
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[–] atomicbocks@sh.itjust.works 0 points 1 month ago (30 children)

On the contrary; while I have heard the explanation that the commenter you replied to has said I have also heard a slightly different theory:

Our universe is the 3 dimensional event horizon of a 4th dimensional black hole. By extension we may find that black holes in our universe have similar funky 2 dimensional areas at their even horizons.

I am sure clickbait articles are part of it but there also seems to be several actual theories surrounding the idea of the nature of our universe relating to black holes.

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