Which world are you?
Pick a planet and get a tiny fact.
✦ the observatory · field notes from space ✦
look up.
A small corner for black holes, astronomy, physics, impossible questions, and the parts of the universe that make your brain feel wonderfully tiny.
01 · tiny space station
click around. there are little things here.pick a star.
Choose one of the stars.
If the universe is expanding, what is it expanding into?
Moon phase: waxing crescent
The Moon appears to grow from a thin crescent toward full.
05 · gravity lab
how close are you getting?
Move the dial. This is only a visual metaphor—not a physics simulator—but it gives a feel for how dramatically a black hole changes the scene around it.
comfortably far away35%
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Can anything be lost forever?
The Information Paradox:
I know. It's a scary title. I sincerely promise it is nothing more than that. (Theoretically) imagine if someone tossed your limited-edition Norman Rockwell porcelain plates set into a black hole. Any not emotionally regulated sane person would be furious (assuming you like Rockwell's work that much). Now what if they also toss in all your electronics, books, clothes, and planet. Is it possible to get every atom back to rearrange it back together after it vanishes past the invisible boundary of a black hole?
For years on end, scientists agreed that the "information" would stay in the black hole forever. Quantum mechanics, however, wholeheartedly disagrees. In enters the information paradox.
Information/Hawking's Paradox: a fundamental conflict in physics where black holes appear to destroy information, contradicting quantum mechanics, which asserts that information cannot be lost.
Posed as a question for everyone reading to answer, what can this paradox reveal about human nature? If information can never truly disappear, what does that mean for the things we truly experience? Anger, memories, grief, embarrassment, joy. Do things ever really vanish, or do they simply change form into something brand new?
Stick around for more on this later!
Sincerely,
A̷
If an article makes a dramatic claim, trace it back to the paper, institution, or original source before believing the headline.