Is Space Gonna Rip Apart?

If space time is ripped apart, how will that affect the stock market?

I find it interesting the estimate of 200 billion galaxies.

This clearly can't be the first time 2 black holes collide, and not the last one either, just the first observation.

Interesting article Fredski, thanks.

shore

Wake me up when it happens.

Maybe we will all be transported back in time.....

Ahh the 90's, what a crazy time to live.

If black holes collide, do they merge into one as a liquid might, but being super dense (thus suggesting solid?) do they bounce off each other, or shatter or splash into millions of pieces - lots of small black holes.

Is the total mass of a black hole and all the surrounding stars before being sucked in, the same after being sucked in, and similarly the total mass of two black holes the same before and after merging.

There will probably be a ripple in space time gravity.

Do we know what might happen if Earth is hit by a space/time wave.

Banda Aceh and Fukushima were mild tidal movements ....that's what!

I think the c\net article is a little over-dramatic in suggesting anything will be "ripped apart". Yes, there will by intense gravitational waves (GWs) (periodic spatial stretching/squeezing cycles) in the immediate vicinity and a few nearby stars in that galaxy could have their structures and orbits disrupted, but farther away nothing that dramatic.

I do not believe that a total galaxy will be "ripped apart", because such mergers are relatively abundant and we do observe some that has happened long ago. I think the actual merger of the two galaxies can be the more dramatic and disruptive effect.

Merging BHs are not predicted to bounce, but rather to merge into one bigger hole, with some portion of the combined mass converted into GWs during the merge. This particular pair is too far away for any GWs to be detected by any present or future detector on Earth.

To Jorrie #9.

Thanks for taking the trouble to explain to me what might happen. I appreciate we are too far away in this instance to feel the effect, but if the GW was 'feelable' here what can we expect?

For instance, does a GW have a predictable frequency - something very low - like 13 cycles per annum - similar in effect to the Moon circling the Earth - or is it a higher frequency such as a continuous ripple - and likely vibrate and shake the Earth to pieces.

Just curious.

Yes, GWs have predictable frequencies if one knows the details of the event that causes them. They range from the μHz to the kHz ranges, but the strongest ones that may reach Earth are thought to be in the milli-Hz range and the amplitudes are predicted to be very small.

Presently we have LIGO system of detectors, with a frequency range 10Hz to 10 kHz, just about the audio range! Unfortunately, nothing strong enough has come around in that band yet. There is some hope that 'advanced LIGO' will come online later this year and with its higher sensitivity, may detect something within a few years.

Now to the hypothetical scenario of 'Big, real Big' gravitational waves hitting Earth. It may be somewhat like an earthquake (I think it may trigger earthquakes), but GWs are not quite the sort of ripples in terra firma of earthquakes. They are more of a stretch followed by a squeeze that will effect the Earth as a whole, somewhat like earth-tides caused by our moon.

GW's are however different from earth-tides in that they have two components at 90 degrees apart that operate simultaneously. It becomes a little technical, but the Earth-moon system acts as an 'antenna' that sends out feeble GW's into the cosmos, carrying away some of the system's combined angular momentum.

Back to the hypothetical scenario - strong enough GWs passing us can certainly destroy our planet, but we know of no objects close enough to cause that sort of amplitudes. It would require two super-massive BH to coalesce into one and we think we have only one in our Galaxy - at the galactic center.

-J

To Jorrie #10.

Thanks for your help.

I have no expertise in this field, and always look forward to your participation.

In this case my best guess basically coincides with your explanation, but the reader should accept your "we have only one in our Galaxy - at the galactic center" to the theme music from Jaws. Otherwise, thanks a lot!.

Just to clarify my thought...Jorrie mentioned 'super-massive BH at6 the centre of the galaxy. We have at least one good example (which I cannot quote just now), of galaxies colliding/ merging, with the inference that the BH's t the centres should do likewise, when they come into close enough proximity.

No. Not until it is time for the world to be destroyed and then a New Heaven and a New Earth will be created, per the Bible. As a verse in the Bible says, "by Him (God) and for Him all things were created and through Him all things hold together." The Universe is an intricate, balanced mechanism that we keep learning more and more about as technology advances and we are able to probe and see farther out into the farther reaches of the Universe. The Earth is a small "pinprick" in the expanse of the Universe.

I know, there will be those who say "fairy tales", made up fiction, etc., but I trust the Bible as the most plausible explanation out there, for our creation, existence and future.