Perhaps the most exciting question of all. What’s known from previous scientific research on black holes is that they consume their surroundings. Not the most appealing outlook for objects approaching such a place: it looks like anything 'disappears' in there. It is said that even light cannot escape from it, which makes them look like what they are named after.
What more is known (and widely accepted) about black holes? That they can be created when a supernova is at the end of its life, burns up and collapses under the pressure of its own mass. Furthermore, there is evidence that suggests black holes are turning on their axis like most structures in space tend to do. That’s about it though, when it comes to main characteristics of black holes. What happens inside the black hole remains a big question. Let’s go to the theory about this.
Black holes consist of antimatter
So what is there inside a black hole? The short answer: antimatter. Apart from perhaps some very unfortunate objects of matter that are being sucked in, completely shred apart and eventually turned into antimatter as well. Before getting into more details, we first need to know a bit more about antimatter.
Hoogenboom’s theory considers antimatter to be the opposite of matter in all its characteristics. These are the most important ones:
- While matter can release energy, along with increasing volume, antimatter does the opposite: it absorbs energy and decreases volume.
- Matter can only sustain in temperatures above the 'absolute zero' of 0 Kelvin, while antimatter can only sustain below 0 Kelvin.
Absorbed energy and decreased volume
The first characteristic explains what happens to the objects that are being sucked into a black hole. The antimatter of the black hole consumes the objects and converts their volume into contained energy. Black holes are assumed to have a very strong gravitational field. The more objects (planets, rocks, anything of matter) that are being attracted and consumed by the black hole, the more energy it gains. The more energy it gains, the stronger its gravitational field becomes.
Antimatter can (only) sustain below 0 Kelvin
0 Kelvin is known as the absolute minimum temperature in the universe. This theory opposes this idea: indeed 0 Kelvin is the minimum, but only for matter. Antimatter, being the opposite of matter, can have any temperature below the 'minimum' of 0 Kelvin. In addition, antimatter can only sustain at a temperature below this minimum. At temperatures above, its structure will come apart and its contained energy is released.
Black holes cannot be stopped
When a supernova collapses and creates a black hole, this slightly shifts the balance in the universe, from matter towards antimatter. The new black hole with its antimatter core is here to stay, and starts consuming the surrounding space. Not only large things, like planets and stars, but really any type of matter that is nearby: dust, rocks, tiny particles, etcetera. The immense gravitation inside the black hole crushes the matter and assimilates it. The more energy gained, the lower the temperature of the black hole becomes. The gravitation becomes stronger and the black hole expands its range for attracting objects.
This process cannot be stopped. The temperature inside the black hole keeps dropping, millions of degrees below the absolute minimum for matter. Its energy and gravitational field grow and more and more objects become within its reach to be assimilated. Black holes that start attracting each other will merge into bigger black holes. Eventually the entire universe will be assimilated into one black hole.
This is not the end of existence however. When there is no more matter to consume, the black hole will 'starve' due to this lack of energy. It is no longer able to sustain its low temperature. The temperature will start to rise, until it reaches 0 Kelvin, the absolute minimum for matter, but also the absolute maximum for the antimatter of which the black hole consists. The antimatter of the black hole cannot sustain temperatures above 0 Kelvin, and will degenerate quickly, causing an enormous explosion that we can see as a new Big Bang.