How Black Holes Are The Particle Accelerators of The Universe

For a long time, humans thought that only they could create particle accelerators such as the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) from Geneva (Switzerland), which is also the largest machine in the world. But once again, nature shows who’s boss as natural particle accelerators were already there throughout the vast ocean of space. While the LHC can accelerate particles almost at the speed of light, black holes can also generate such an incredible acceleration. The problem is that these cosmic monsters don’t know when to stop. The good news is that scientists could exploit that natural acceleration process.

Perhaps the most astonishing feature of black holes is the infinite gravity that these cosmic monsters are possessing. Not even light can escape once it gets too close to a black hole, something that defies the laws of physics themselves. Furthermore, objects that get too close to a black hole are attracted with speed higher than light, which again is a defiance of the laws of nature. But according to a new study, that huge pull can behave like a particle accelerator as soon as it traps an object near the event horizon.

Particles could be lost forever

Scientists will have to act very carefully if they ever want to accelerate particles within a black hole. The method of doing so, says the new study, is to set everything upwards. Otherwise, any object falling into a black hole would be lost forever or appearing in another universe or dimension of spacetime.

When a particle gets trapped into a black hole beyond the event horizon, it is completely lost for this world. Of course, this would definitely not be a winning ticket for a particular accelerator, as we need the particles themselves in our dimension. But as one particle will behave like that, there’s hope that the scenario will change drastically if more particles are involved

Throwing two particles to the event horizon at the same speed is the key

When two particles approach the event horizon, their speeds slightly begin to increase. They need the right combination of both speed and direction, and that should cause the particles to ricochet off each other. As one of them will head towards its impending doom, the other particle will go past the event horizon and fly outwards to safety.

We’re not even too thinking that scientists will get to accelerate anything within a black hole for the near future, as these cosmic behemoths are way too far away from us. But considering that technology evolves at huge rates, we have the right to hope for the right scenario becoming a reality in the far future.