1463
well? (mander.xyz)
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] procrastitron@lemmy.world 323 points 1 week ago

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.

[-] scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech 106 points 1 week ago

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 112 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)
[-] msage@programming.dev 12 points 1 week ago

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

[-] Klear@lemmy.world 17 points 1 week ago
[-] xorollo@leminal.space 12 points 1 week ago

Works now! Thanks, and very relevant.

[-] abbadon420@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 week ago

Smbc is Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal, but what does xkcd stand for?

[-] DaPorkchop_@lemmy.ml 24 points 1 week ago

Xaturday Korning Creakfast Dereal

[-] idiomaddict@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago

Xerry kible cellow dip

[-] Klear@lemmy.world 12 points 1 week ago

It's a random unique string, chosen to make the comic easily searchable.

[-] prole 2 points 1 week ago
[-] atomicbocks@sh.itjust.works 17 points 1 week ago

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.

Scientist: Scientific discoveries are meaningless when taken out of context.

Journalist: Scientific discoveries are meaningless.

[-] squaresinger@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago
[-] ivanafterall@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago

Context is text that served time in prison.

[-] OrteilGenou@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

It balances out protext, figure it out rookie

[-] squaresinger@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

Protext is what the really good journalists are writing.

[-] SkaveRat@discuss.tchncs.de 50 points 1 week ago

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

[-] ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world 36 points 1 week ago

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 6 points 1 week 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 19 points 1 week ago

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 2 points 1 week 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

[-] TachyonTele@piefed.social 13 points 1 week ago

Theory is one thing.
Observation is the next step.

[-] procrastitron@lemmy.world 9 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week 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.

[-] Olhonestjim@lemmy.world 9 points 1 week ago

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 6 points 1 week ago

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

[-] Quadhammer@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago

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

[-] procrastitron@lemmy.world 12 points 1 week ago

Entering and escaping are two wildly different things.

It can enter, but not escape.

[-] Brisket@lemmy.ca 7 points 1 week ago

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

[-] ivanafterall@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

Why is there a warm smell of colitis in the air?

[-] Ledivin@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week 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.

[-] OrteilGenou@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago

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 2 points 1 week ago

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

Word

this post was submitted on 21 Jul 2025
1463 points (100.0% liked)

Science Memes

16069 readers
671 users here now

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.



Rules

  1. Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
  2. Keep it rooted (on topic).
  3. No spam.
  4. Infographics welcome, get schooled.

This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.



Research Committee

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS