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Article: You can't see a black hole. (Innovative Notebook) (column)
- Article from:
- R & D
- Article date:
- August 1, 1991
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1991 Advantage Business Media. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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By definition, a black hole just plainly ain't visible. You can't see it, nohow. Nada. Nicht. Non. Nyet. Since light itself cannot escape from whatever passes for the surface of a black hole, the only visible aspect of such a beast would be the agony and the ecstasy of matter and energy being inexorably sucked into the dark vortex, wildly screaming radiation throughout the electromagnetic spectrum while descending into the void.
We can see this radiant ruckus with our optical reflectors and hear it with our radiotelescopes. But, if a nice, quiet mature black hole were to exist in an otherwise empty corner of space, it could not be detected by ant of the means ...