Black Holes
Galaxy M 87 Black Hole
First image ever seen of an actual black hole, taken by the earth-sized Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) in April 2019.
As you gaze at this colorful image (above), do you realize you are among the first to observe a feature that no human eyes had ever seen prior to April 2019 – a black hole? Most of us have heard of black holes. Some believed they existed; others thought them to be a figment of someone’s overactive imagination in the realm of science fiction. Of course, many scientists are completely ‘starry-eyed’ over this discovery. My reaction - it’s one more piece of a giant puzzle that adds to the mystery and glory of our incredibly creative God.
Did you know Albert Einstein, a century ago, unveiled his general theory of relativity – you know, that famous equation E=MC (squared) – which describes how mass bends or warps space-time, producing gravity? Specifically, he predicted that matter could be packed into infinitely warped regions of space. The densest, most highly compressed matter in the universe is found in black holes and neutron stars. How dense you might ask? It has everything to do with gravity; the denser the object, the greater the gravitational attraction. Consider this:
Being an inhabitant of planet earth, you know a thing or two about gravity. If you’re an average-sized adult male, you likely weigh somewhere between 150 and 300 pounds. Your weight is a direct measurement the force of gravity exerts on our bodies. Imagine an earth wrapped in a vice grip of infinite force. As the vice tightened, earth would begin to shrink and become denser. To reach black hole status, all matter on earth would have to be compressed to the size of a single atom! Were you to stand on ‘black-hole-earth’, your weight would skyrocket to billions of pounds! Actually, you wouldn’t be able to stand on such an earth, you’d be sucked into its black hole. For comparison, go back to the black hole of Galaxy M87. It has a diameter four times the diameter of our solar system and the mass of 6,500,000,000 Suns! Hard to imagine, isn’t it?
Why are these mysterious occupants of our universe called ‘black holes’, a term first published in 1964? The general answer given is they are black because photons of light are unable to escape their enormous gravitational pull. You see stars through your telescope because they emit light; you don’t see black holes through your telescope because they don’t emit light. So then, how did the EHT telescope “see” the black hole in the above image?
The Event Horizon Telescope is actually eight telescopes in one with locations in Spain, Greenland, Antarctica, South America, Hawaii, and North America. Working in tandem, the eight scopes trained their gaze toward a galaxy 60 million light years from Earth called M87. (M87, also designated NGC 4486, is an elliptical galaxy in the constellation Virgo). This galaxy was of particular interest because it contained a gigantic black hole with a mass 6.5 billion times greater than the mass of the Sun; EHT measured electromagnetic radiation in the form of various radio wavelengths. What it “saw” wasn’t the actual black hole, but rather, its “shadow”. The EHT telescope has the resolving power capable of reading a book in a café in Paris – from New York City!
Lest you think black holes are rare, think again; the universe is filled with literally billions of black holes. For starters, every single galaxy in the universe has a black hole at its core; that includes our own Milky Way Galaxy (MWG). Billions of additional black holes are created by the collapse of exploding stars called “super-novae”. Some black holes are in a constant state of feeding frenzy, meaning their gravitational field is gobbling up any matter that gets too close. When this happens, the stellar “food” enters the black hole, is processed inside the black hole, and is jettisoned into space as duel jets of super-intense x-ray energy; astronomers call these jets “quasars” (see image).
Quasar
The energy from the ionized beam of a quasar is so great, that a beam emanating toward earth from as far away as the planet Pluto would evaporate our oceans in less than one second! If such a quasar jet existed in our nearest neighboring Andromeda Galaxy, 2.5 million light years away, its deadly rays would make it impossible for life to exist anywhere in our Milky Way Galaxy. The quasar-beam from M87 black hole is a trillion-trillion times more powerful than the Sun. Even this is infinitesimal when compared to the One who created it: “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens…for our God is a consuming fire.” (Hebrews 12:26,29)
What does any of this have to do with God? My first reaction is one of total awe: I am so small, and God is so great in comparison. After all, the Creator is far greater than his creation. Imagine, the glory of our God makes the brilliance of a quasar pale in comparison – and we get to gaze upon that glory face-to-face for eternity! Then, I begin to think of my Creator as a planner and protector. A universe filled with black holes can be hazardous to life; if a gravity field doesn’t gobble us up, then a quasar radiation beam will fry us. On the other hand, many elements that make up a human or are useful to humans have their origins in a black hole nucleosynthesis oven: gold, silver, uranium, iodine – to mention a few. Iodine is a critical element in the human body.
Did you know that Earth just ‘happens’ to be located in the ‘safest’ zone within the MWG. We’re far enough away from the MWG black hole to not get sucked into it; in fact, the MWG ceased being a feeding galaxy long ago, so it doesn’t have an active, dangerous quasar x-ray jet. MWG is a member of the Local Group of five galaxies; the Local Group is tucked away in a very isolated corner of the universe, far away from many of the most harmful black holes and quasars. In addition, Earth is the only planet in the solar system that possesses a powerful geomagnetic force-field to shield us from incoming radiation from the Sun and other cosmic sources. Yet, in preparation for humans, God arranged to collect the necessary elements to support life; these elements are the remnants of exploding stars and colliding black holes.
My concluding thoughts turn toward the Bible, Genesis 1:1 and Jeremiah 33:25-26. M87 black hole and thousands of other cosmic phenomena continue to affirm Einstein’s general theory of relativity, a predictor of a “beginning” to time and space. Of course, the Bible starts out by saying “In the beginning, God created the heavens and earth”. Jeremiah even has God swearing an oath by his created ‘constant laws of physics’, giving credence to the general theory of relativity. He says: “Thus says the Lord: If I have not established my covenant with day and night and the fixed order of heaven and earth, then I will reject the offspring of Jacob and David my servant and will not choose one of his offspring to rule over the offspring of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” The stakes of this oath were very high indeed; that chosen offspring would be none other than the only begotten Son, Jesus Christ.
Once again, the Creator is revealed to us through his creation, this time via a black hole. Add Black Holes to my long list of questions for God; fortunately, I will have eternity to explore his answers.
