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Uncategorized Thursday, May 5th 2011 at 12:49 pm

Scientists: Some Black Holes Could Be Older Than the Big Bang

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Those of us in the general public like to think of the Big Bang as the beginning of everything; in the beginning, there was nothing, then there was the Big Bang. But new theories of the Universe’s creation suggest that not only is this not the case, and might suggest that a special class of black holes in this Universe are actually older than the Big Bang.

I’ll give you a minute to take that in.

Here’s how the theory goes: instead of a static nothingness prior to the Big Bang, some cosmologists believe that the Universe is destroyed and re-created in series of big bangs and big crunches. In this model of the Universe, everything explodes outward in a big bang type event, and then over the lifespan of the Universe contracts again into a single point in a big crunch before beginning the cycle over again. Sort of like a pheonix, but with a lot more squishing.

Two researchers believe that if this model is accurate, this would allow for the creation of black holes in the super-dense Universe that exists prior to a big bang that could survive into the newly created Universe. Bernard Carr of Queen Mary University of London and Alan Coley with Dalhousie University have brought this theory forward, and have even defined the mass range that these black holes would need in order to survive a big bang event.

While bold, their theory does present a problem in that it would be nearly impossible to identify these super-ancient black holes. Carr and Coley believe that they should die out, as many black holes do, with a burst of gamma radiation that would be detectable with Fermi Space Telescope. However, there is as yet no way to determine if gamma ray bursts are from a pre-Big Bang black hole.

This research is not the first to contend that information, or indeed objects, have survived the Big Bang. But with such a radical notion it will require a large body of proof to back it up, as all good science does. That said, if it were to prove true it would upset deeply-held public notions about our Universe and perhaps radically change the way we understand the origins of everything. Hold on to your hats, people.

(Discovery, Technology Review, via Slashdot, image via Wikimedia)

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  • http://twitter.com/PestControlCtr Pest Control Center

    I’d be interested in hearing where the energy comes from for such massive cycles of explosions and implosions over and over. It doesn’t seem to fit within the laws of thermodynamics.

  • Anonymous

    Before the Big Bang came Galactus and the cosmic egg that birthed him, everyone knows that!

  • http://profiles.google.com/slarmas Slar Mas

    Energy can neither be created nor destroyed, so wouldn’t it fit into that law. Energy just changing form from mass to energy and back to mass in an endless cycle.
    (Disclaimer: I am not a Physicist a troll or trying to prove I am right above all else. I am simply trying to add to the discussion answer a question or provide incite. If you take this comment as anything other than polite discourse, well then you die you die and you go to hell! :) :)

  • http://profiles.google.com/slarmas Slar Mas

    Energy can neither be created nor destroyed, so wouldn’t it fit into that law. Energy just changing form from mass to energy and back to mass in an endless cycle.
    (Disclaimer: I am not a Physicist a troll or trying to prove I am right above all else. I am simply trying to add to the discussion answer a question or provide incite. If you take this comment as anything other than polite discourse, well then you die you die and you go to hell! :) :)

  • Jackbondnj16

    The Big Bang is a cute theory, but I’m not going to put any bit of merit on it until someone can tell me where that matter came from.

  • Anonymous

    the total absence of matter/energy generated a dimensional differential probability resulting in the spontaneous creation of a single particle which having nothing to expand into….exploded.

  • Gand

    There is an interesting connection here with some very old cosmological intuitions. The ancient Stoics (at least a goodly number of them) held that the universe arises from and resolves into a divine fire, or Zeus. This happens perpetually, such that the cosmos emerges and is destroyed unendingly. This also has fascinating connections with Nietzsche’s teaching on the Eternal Recurrance of the Same.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_Z4CJFSWSF6NJQ2QO56FEBHKHJM K

    Slar, from what I understand, also not as a physicist, as energy is converted from one form to another, a portion of that dissipates as heat, which is rarely able to do work. It’s still energy, but a “useless” form.

  • http://twitter.com/MattCrinos Matt Stowe

    Is that some Mass Effect?

  • http://www.facebook.com/happykyd Brett Garrett

    nuff said

    big bang is just a poor interpretation of a single glance over the shoulder at the most recent arising

  • http://www.facebook.com/happykyd Brett Garrett

    nuff said

    big bang is just a poor interpretation of a single glance over the shoulder at the most recent arising

  • Rick W

    Translation: nothing made everything.

    And they say GENESIS makes no sense?!?

  • Alex

    The big bang theory is just the latest guess and shouldnt be taken too seriously. Yes everything with science is just a model that will be replaced/upgraded but hypothesizing how the universe begin is a little bit silly at this stage of the game.

    There is nothing wrong with making guesses but to take them seriously is futile.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Matthew-Beck/1028196131 Matthew Beck

    The Big Bang theory doesn’t say matter just magically appeared. It says that everything, all matter and energy and what-have-you, was squished into a single point, which exploded. It doesn’t say anything at all about the origin of all the matter and energy and what-have-you.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100003036007162 David Van

    the matter is from the previous cycle, “crunched” down until it explodes. It’s like a very long cycle engine that ignites only once in 30 billion years or so, give or take a few billion. Ignition, expansion, contraction, crunch and back to ignition.

    The hindu’s called it the cosmic breath, The toltecs suggested that an eagle was devouring the universe but that it offered a gift, I thought black hole as soon as I heard of that rumor.Where the matter originally came from? I would argue that it’s easier to just accept that it is since that easier than believing it isn’t, though there is plenty of evidence suggesting it is less substantial than we think, however, where the matter originally came from is actually quite a minor detail which in no way can ever wholly invalidate the big bang theory, a largely well thought out and probably mostly correct theory of how the universe formed.