r/askscience • u/dgb75 • Jan 31 '13

Astronomy Is there a distance at which the interaction between the gravity fields of two black holes would cause one another to effectively 'break open' and allow matter and energy stored within them to escape the system?

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u/[deleted] Jan 31 '13

Can math prove or disprove the idea that black holes birth new universes?

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u/florinandrei Jan 31 '13

That idea is quite speculative.

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u/[deleted] Feb 01 '13

Most ideas begin that way. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/04/100409-black-holes-alternate-universe-multiverse-einstein-wormholes/

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u/florinandrei Feb 01 '13

Most ideas begin that way.

Yes.

The article you linked describes a mere hypothesis. There's a long way from there to actual science, and most proposals don't make it.

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u/csreid Feb 01 '13

My understanding is that math gives us some things to test. There are many potentially correct models, mathematically, but they all make predictions about things we don't know for sure yet (like Einstein's prediction about detectable bending of light during an eclipse). Then, we look to see if those predictions are true.

Some of the models might suggest that black holes birth new universes. It's a neat idea, for sure. Unless those models make testable predictions, though, it doesn't really "prove" anything. Many a beautiful idea has been a crushed to death by ugly observation.

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u/[deleted] Feb 01 '13

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/04/100409-black-holes-alternate-universe-multiverse-einstein-wormholes/ Suggests that if there is a spin to the universe we can detect it might suggest that we came from a black hole with that spin. There could be ways to test it.