Two theories compete for prominence in the scientific community

Dec 28, 2013 07:49 GMT  ·  By

Black holes have fascinated astrophysicists from day one, and for good reason; they are arguably the most interesting objects in the Universe. No matter where they stand or how these structures work, all experts agree that falling into a black hole would kill you. What they do not agree on is how.

There are two main hypotheses for what would happen once your body passed the event horizon – or point of no return – beyond which a black hole's gravitational pull is so strong that not even light can escape. The first school of through supports Albert Einstein's traditional view, while the second one takes a fundamentally-new approach that helps preserve the integrity of the quantum mechanics theory.

Supporters of the traditional view say that, when your body passes through the event horizon, a process dubbed spaghettification occurs. This means that gravity from the object would tug at your feet more than at your head, stretching you like spaghetti too many times your height before killing you.

The main issue with this explanation is that black holes are known to evaporate – or lose mass – over time, meaning that they will eventually disappear. But information cannot disappear from the Universe according to fundamental laws of physics, and theoretically space archaeologists should be able to find your spaghettified remains preserved inside a black hole (which does not happen after evaporation).

This is where the second explanation steps in. Its approach is much more radical, and a departure from the physics of Albert Einstein. Proponents say that there is no space inside the black hole, past the event horizon. Any matter – human bodies included – making its way past this threshold would be utterly and irrevocably disintegrated in a storm of quantum particles, NPR reports.

This explanation preserves fundamental laws of physics and ensures that all matter and information in the Universe is kept constant. However, not many researchers agree that the interior of a black hole has no space or that it rips the very fabric of space apart.

Interestingly, there have been no pertinent arguments to suggest that black holes do have interiors to date. This makes the debate all the more important and mesmerizing. A researcher argues that these structures rip space-time apart, and no one is able to demonstrate that this is not the case, despite their gut feelings.

Many astrophysicists believe that this is precisely the type of debate that will move the field forward. As technology becomes increasingly complicated, experts will probably have access to new means of studying black holes in the near future.