This Black Hole Could be Bigger Than The Universe

Exploring the Mind-Bending Possibilities of Cosmic Black Holes

Black holes are some of the most mysterious and captivating phenomena in the universe. These incredibly dense regions of space-time have the power to warp the very fabric of existence, bending the laws of physics in ways that challenge our fundamental understanding of the cosmos.

But what if the rabbit hole goes even deeper? What if our entire universe is actually contained within a gargantuan black hole, one that dwarfs even the observable limits of our known reality? This mind-bending possibility is the focus of the latest video from the science communication experts at Kurzgesagt, and it opens up a whole new realm of cosmic speculation.

In their video “This Black Hole Could be Bigger Than The Universe”, Kurzgesagt takes us on a journey through the strange and paradoxical nature of black holes, exploring how these cosmic behemoths could potentially give birth to entire universes of their own. It’s a concept that challenges our most fundamental assumptions about the nature of space, time, and the origins of the universe itself.

Building a Black Hole from Thin Air

To begin, Kurzgesagt demonstrates how even the most seemingly innocuous materials can be transformed into a black hole, given the right conditions:

Everything can become a black hole if you squeeze it to a critical limit. For example, you’d need to squeeze the Earth down to the size of a coin for it to turn into a black hole.
The Sun would need to be squeezed down to the size of a small city in order to become a black hole.
Interestingly, the larger a black hole gets, the less dense it actually becomes. A supermassive black hole the size of a solar system could be as diffuse as air.

This means that, in theory, you could create a black hole simply by taking a gigantic balloon and filling it with an unfathomable amount of “cosmic air” – the diffuse matter and energy that permeates the observable universe. Once this balloon reaches a certain size, an event horizon would suddenly form, and it would transform into a supermassive black hole.

“If we take a balloon as big as the observable universe and fill it with ‘cosmic air’, it turns out that all the mass in the observable universe is more than enough to create a black hole. Actually, it’s enough to make a black hole 10 times larger than the observable universe.”

The Paradox of the Expanding Universe

This raises an intriguing possibility – could our entire universe actually be contained within such a gargantuan black hole? After all, the observable universe is a sphere with a radius of 45 billion light-years, filled with hundreds of billions of galaxies.

However, there’s a catch. We know that our universe is expanding, which doesn’t quite fit the expected behavior of a black hole. Typically, black holes are thought to be spheres with a singularity at their center, where all the mass is concentrated to the point that our mathematical models break down.

“So our universe can’t be a black hole – at least not in the naive way we’ve just described. Except there is a wild and mind-bending trick the universe could play on us.”

Falling into the Black Hole Rabbit Hole

Kurzgesagt explains that the interior of a black hole is far stranger and more complex than the simple sphere-with-a-singularity model. In reality, the inside of a black hole is a mind-bending realm where the normal rules of space and time are completely inverted:

Inside a black hole, space and time switch their roles. While in a normal sphere, space is finite but time goes on forever, inside a black hole it’s the opposite – space goes on forever, but time is finite.
This means that once you cross the event horizon, you find yourself in an infinite universe with no center, where you could walk forever in one direction and end up back where you started.
But this infinite black hole universe is also doomed to collapse in on itself, as space is slowly being squeezed and stretched in different directions, ultimately leading to a final singularity where space and time cease to have any meaning.

“Sooner or later, the whole black hole universe collapses into itself. All of space, every single part of it, is turning into a singularity. So the singularity of a black hole is not at its center or in any direction at all. It’s in the future of whatever falls inside.”

This raises the tantalizing possibility that our own universe could have been born inside the event horizon of an even larger black hole. Just as a black hole can give birth to a new universe within its confines, our universe may have emerged from the collapse of a previous cosmic black hole – and that new universe could, in turn, be creating black holes of its own.

Infinite Black Hole Universes

Kurzgesagt explores the idea that this process of black hole-mediated universal creation could continue ad infinitum, with each new universe spawning its own black holes that give rise to even more universes. This cosmic self-reproduction would be subject to a kind of natural selection, where the universes best able to create black holes would become the most common.

“If the universe creates black holes that create universes, that then create new black holes that create new universes, this cosmic self-reproduction would be subject to natural selection. A Big Bang is a chaotic and messy event, so it’s possible that the new daughter universes would not always be fully identical to their mums. Sometimes physics may be slightly different, with some fundamental values higher or lower. And so some universes might be able to create loads of stars, planets and black holes. Others might not, maybe creating a uniform cosmic soup where no stars, planets and black holes form. But if all universes are born inside black holes, in the long run all universe lines that don’t create loads of black holes would die out. The universes with the conditions for loads of black holes would become the most common and spawn the most daughter universes.”

This means that the specific laws and properties of our universe may have been shaped by this process of cosmological natural selection, optimizing it to produce as many new black hole universes as possible. And as a happy accident, this may also create the conditions necessary for the emergence of life.

“If this scenario is true, who knows how many bazillions of black hole universes might be out there. All with stars and planets, potentially home to others like us.”

Unlocking the Power of Curiosity

While these ideas about black hole-spawned universes are highly speculative, Kurzgesagt emphasizes that they are based on real science and mathematical models. However, they remain untestable with our current technological capabilities, raising more questions than answers.

To help viewers explore these mind-bending concepts further, Kurzgesagt is promoting their new “Guide to Curiosity” – a 160-page interactive adventure designed to “awaken your curiosity, changing your perspective on the world forever.”

“There might be so much life. And if new universes are created constantly, maybe life will go on forever. We’ve heard rumors of a chosen one. A special birb who has the power to illuminate the vast darkness of the universe, uncovering the great mysteries of the world. We are all born with this power. But only few are able to master it. We use the same power here at kurzgesagt to find the latest science and come up with the most exciting videos. This special power is called: curiosity.”

The Curiosity Guide is packed with engaging quests, puzzles, and activities to help readers tap into their inner sense of wonder and discovery. By joining Kurzgesagt on this interactive journey, viewers can unlock their own potential to uncover the hidden truths of our universe – perhaps even shedding light on the possibility that our reality is contained within a cosmic black hole.

More: The Macabre History of Necromancy: Communicating with the Dead Across Civilizations

Exploring the Kurzgesagt Universe

For those interested in exploring the fascinating world of black holes and the origins of the universe, additional resources are available:

Comprehensive sources and further reading on the science behind these ideas
Multilingual content available in German, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Arabic, Hindi, Japanese, and Korean
Ways to support scientific content creation
Social media channels for community engagement and latest updates

By exploring these resources, you can delve deeper into the captivating world of black holes, cosmology, and the mind-bending possibilities of our universe. Who knows – you might even unlock your own inner curiosity and become the “chosen one” destined to uncover the great mysteries of the cosmos.