Over the last few years, astronomers have observed several instances of a black hole ripping apart a star that got too close. We have also observed black holes merging with each other using gravitational waves, and possibly the first collision between a neutron star and a black hole.
While nothing can escape a black hole, as a collision takes place energy is released. And the energy emissions from such events are on a scale that we struggle to comprehend. No everyday analogy can do them justice. The huge values we detect paint quite the picture.
A BLACK HOLE expert has built a calculator capable of computing the fate of astronomical bodies sucked into these collapsed stars. Particle physicist Álvaro Diez from the University of Warsaw has now created an online tool to calculate what would happen to astronomical objects after they enter the black hole.
The Black Hole Collision Calculator is available to use for free. The tool supplies numerous parameters, such as the incredible amount of energy produced by collisions with different-sized objects. Just decide the mass of the black hole and the mass of the object falling in, and you’ll get some fascinating numbers. He was inspired by all the recent news about black holes, including the extraordinary first picture of a supermassive black hole.
The math behind the calculator is not absurdly complex but Díez was committed to making it as accessible as possible. In addition to the handy calculator, he has included a clear explanation of what’s going on so that whoever comes across the tool will understand what they are calculating.
The calculator is fascinating. For a quick test, they had a very small (and unrealistic) black hole, 14 times the mass of the Earth, cannibalizing our planet. Such a black hole would be roughly the size of a basketball and a collision with Earth would release the amount of energy produced by the Sun over 26.9 million years.
Díez is upfront in admitting that the calculator has limitations. There is a lot we still don’t know about black holes and the calculator doesn’t make use of the most complex equations. For example, the black holes are assumed to be non-rotating and do not emit gravitational waves. Given that we know that real black holes do, we can think of the energy released as a lower limit for what actually happens in space.
– NEHA
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