by Kumar L
Narada waited to get Anara’s attention before he spoke again. “Captain, I agree the options seem unlikely. A black hole would require a star which is at least twenty times as massive as our own sun to collapse under its own gravity. There are other predicted models for the formation of black holes including extremely high-energy collisions of great density, or the conditions created inside a particle accelerator used by experimental physicists. The Extreme Graviton Collider on the moon has created several such singularities which have lasted long enough to be studied.”
“Narada, Narada,” said Anara, shaking her head, not buying into his arguments. “We don't have a particle accelerator anywhere nearby and the high energy particles created in a lab would not exist in space on their own violation. Such particles would need temperatures in the range of millions of degrees to get that kind of energy.”
“You are right about that. Such temperatures exist at the core of the Sun or in our own matter-antimatter reaction chambers only.”
“Say again. What?” Ryan had just entered the room.
“At the core...”
“No need, Narada. It was a rhetorical question. What’s going on, Captain?”
Anara quickly brought Ryan up to speed.
Ryan listened carefully, while he looked over the available data on his screen and entered some commands.
Anara watched him saying nothing. Ryan was a theoretical physicist by training, and if anyone could figure this out it would be him.
Leaving him at his work, she sidled over to Manisha. “Dig up some data on black holes, will you?”
“Of course, ma’am,” Manisha replied and entered the relevant commands. Her screen displayed copious amounts of text and she started reading it out aloud. “Black holes are singularities,” she read, “characterized by an intense gravity field which does not allow anything to escape its attraction, not even light. Though theorised since the beginning of the twentieth century, no black hole has ever been closely observed in the last two hundred years, though there are quite a few photographs taken by deep space radio telescopes, including that of the supermassive black hole at the centre of our own galaxy.” Manisha looked up. “I remember all the photographs developed using radio telescopes, but they were only able to capture images of black holes with accretion discs.”
Anara nodded, and she continued, “Black holes are formed when a sufficiently compact mass deforms spacetime. Generally, such compact masses are formed after the collapse of a very massive star possibly after a supernova explosion of said star.”
“That is high school physics. As is the fact that they cannot be detected directly since electromagnetic radiation cannot escape their gravitational pull. We can only observe their presence through their interaction with interstellar materials, like when they absorb other stars or planets. They can also be observed indirectly by measuring changes in gravitational waves, or their interaction with light. They will bend light from sources behind them in a phenomenon known as gravitational lensing.”
Anara looked over, then walked across to Ryan’s station. “We have no missing stars near Earth certainly not within four light years. In fact, there are no stars within that distance, certainly not something twenty times as big as our sun. This phenomenon is not a black hole,” observed Anara, pursing her lips. “We are looking at something which should not even be here in this region of space.”
Ryan nodded. “Give me a few minutes, please? I will confirm our findings. Jas,” he called out to another crewmember as she entered Ops, “run some simulations. I’m sending across the parameters.” He looked down as his back screen and worked silently, unintentionally ignoring Anara.
She turned back to Manisha “Get working with Narada. Get me information on the other possibilities while we wait for Ryan to finish his research.”
“Do you think this is serious enough to merit this much attention? We might miss the CDG if we get distracted.”
“Manisha, in my many years of flying in space, I have never seen a phenomenon such as this. Never. The CDG is no longer our top priority. We need to understand if this poses any threat to Antariksh and its crew before we go any further. If our jump went as programmed, we are way ahead of the CDG, anyway. So, let’s not worry about them for now. This is more important. Proceed as directed.” Anara turned back and stood staring at the holo-image, her eyes searching for clues, as she waited for her team to find her some explanations. I need to be patient.
8
Event Horizon
Anara fidgeted in her seat. It had been quite some time since Ryan had immersed himself in finding answers to the latest puzzle facing them.
The dark mass was now in the dead centre of the holographic display as Antariksh continued on its course. Anara’s sixth sense was tingling away but she did not have sufficient information to take a decision yet. Whatever was out there was not a normal occurrence. She needed answers from Ryan, however half-baked they may be.
“Ryan,” she called out. He ignored her. She raised her voice and called him again, “Ryan?”
He finally looked up, acknowledging her.
“Do you have anything to share? We can’t just wait around while you pretend you’re studying as if you’re back in university.”
Ryan smiled at her sarcasm. He rubbed his eyes and ran a hand through his dark blond hair. Astonishingly, his hair was all in one place. No signs of stress there. How she envied his silky locks.
“The sarcasm is unbecoming of you, Captain, and actually, yes, I was enjoying myself. I apologise. I heard what Manisha was telling you about black holes. But I think there is more.”
He got up from his seat and stretched, then walking over to the centre of the room, he clasped his hands behind his back and paced around trying to gather his thoughts. He was deliberately being slow. He need time to process his findings. The conclusion was too fantastic.
“You are absolutely correct when you said that black holes cannot be seen. They are perfect black bodies, objects that absorb all radiation and reflect no light back. And as you’re aware if an object does not reflect or radiate light, it cannot be seen and remains invisible. But I’m getting ahead of myself.” He continued, “I have run multiple scans of the phenomenon and have been unable to get any readings of any type about the object. I have to conclude that it is absorbing all electromagnetic radiation directed at it including those from our sensor beams. As I said earlier a normal object would have reacted differently. Also, any sufficiently large object has enough gravity to exhibit a lensing effect, I mean the refraction of light from other sources such as stars behind it. I have been able to determine some such lensing around the central area of this thing in front of us. Light from the stars behind it is being bent causing the minutest of lensing.”
He paused as the door opened and Colonel Fraser entered Ops. He came and stood on Captain Anara’s side but her eyes remained focussed on Ryan. There was something big coming up. Now what?
“I proceeded on the assumption,” Ryan went on, “that this is a black hole. That is a logical conclusion in view of all the available evidence.” He glanced around the group as if expecting someone to challenge him. When no one commented he picked up his discourse again. “We will run a few tests shortly to check our assumptions and I hope we are on time, but it may already be too late. The die may have already been cast even before the Captain noticed the object.”
“Event horizon!” breathed Anara.
“Yes, I believe we are already inside it.”
“But, how could we not have noticed it? What about the accretion disc or gravitational effects?” Anara strode over to him and they continued debating the physics.
Fraser found their discussion incomprehensible. He turned to a crewmember sitting at a nearby station. “So, what’s going on here?”
“We seem to have encountered an unknown phenomenon, Colonel,” crewmember Jas responded. “They are trying to understand it better.”
“What phenomenon? Why is ther
e a fish-eye on the holo display?”
“It’s a black hole, or what we believe is a black hole”
“Black hole? But those have those bright golden shiny discs around them, no? What do you call them?”
“Accretion discs. Intense circles of light and matter,” Jas explained. “But those would only be present around black holes of a certain size which have swallowed a star or several planet-size bodies. The energetic particles from the absorbed matter may stay just at the edge of the event horizon, forever caught in a no man’s land, or slowly entering the core of the black hole. What we have in front of us may be a black hole that just does not have sufficient mass or has not sucked in enough matter to form an accretion disc. And Colonel, they believe we may be caught within the event horizon.”
“That is the boundary of the black hole, right? From which nothing can escape? But wouldn’t we know if we entered that boundary?” asked Fraser.
“No, Colonel. You must understand no one has ever entered any event horizon before; there is no way to know when you enter it... it’s impossible to map.”
“You sure we are inside the event horizon?”
Jas shrugged. “That’s nor for me to say, sir.” Fraser looked over to Ryan and Anara.
“I should have acted sooner,” Anara was saying.
“I wouldn’t blame you for this, Captain,” Ryan said. “There was no way you could have known about this. There is no way anyone could have known about this. Even now, till we observe the phenomenon up close, I’d not bet on me being right.” Anara had this bad habit of taking personal responsibility for everything that went wrong. It could be mentally crippling. He was learning to offer his support as soon as she exhibited such behaviour. He looked her in the eyes and offered reassurance. She nodded ever so slightly.
“Manisha, all stop. We will not go any further till we have more information. Send a message to the CDG warning them of the threat ahead. We don’t know where they are, and the signal may not reach them, but we owe them that much.”
“All stop, ma’am. Message transmitted,” Manisha acknowledged.
Within a few moments Manisha looked up in surprise, her eyes worried. “Captain, the engines have stopped but we are still moving forward. Mr. Madhavan, are you reading this?” Her voice jolted Madhavan in the engine room.
“How can that be?” came the surprised voice of Madhavan over the intercom. He rapidly crossed the room and bent at his station to check the engine status for himself. “She’s right, Captain. Engines are stopped but we still have forward movement.”
“This is what you were referring to, weren’t you Ryan?”
He nodded. “We are caught into the gravity well. I was right. Madhavan,” he called over the intercom, “reverse all engines now. We might just be able to break free if we can punch out enough juice.”
“Nothing exits the event horizon, Ryan,” Anara said in a whisper.
“Yes, but this black hole may not yet have gravity strong enough to hold us. Do you want to give up without a fight? Perhaps, if we can achieve FTL speeds... we have to try!”
She nodded.
Everyone felt the vibrations of the engines as they built up power, working against the pull of gravity.
“Power levels at 25% reverse. Forward movement has not slowed,” Manisha’s voice was calm but the minute beads of sweat on her forehead told a different story.
“Noted,” Anara said. “Increase power in increments of 25%. One minute’s dwell at each stage to observe.”
“Yes, ma’am, increasing to 50%.”
With each increment in the engines’ output, hull vibrations increased exponentially as Antariksh struggled to break free. The engines were now at a hundred percent of rated power and still the ship refused to move. The crew could almost feel the inexorable pull of the black hole’s gravitational power. Even the formidable power that Antariksh could work up was clearly not enough to save it. The ship refused to move in reverse.
“Cross over into red zone,” Anara snapped. “My authorisation. Increase power to 120%.” She could not allow the others to feel the fear inside her. She moved slightly to the right, stood behind her chair and put both her hands on its back. She needed the support. Her fingers dug deep into the soft fabric.
Antariksh almost jumped as the power output on the display touched 120. For a split second it appeared like a miracle may happen. But the small reverse motion ceased almost immediately, and the ship moved inexorably forward again although a little slower than earlier.
“Do you have anything more to give me, Madhavan?” Anara called out over the intercom.
“I can barely hold the engines at this level. We are going to tear apart. Hull stress is at 160% of safety limits. You’ve got to dial back!” He just had snatches of conversation to go on, but his own station was displaying a copy of the holo-image from Ops. He knew what Ryan was talking about and wanted to escape as much as the next person, but he knew that Antariksh would not be able to stand the strain for more than a few minutes. He did not want to tear the ship apart and die in open space.
Ominous creaks sounded around Ops and the room was bathed in crimson hues from innumerable warning lights from every console.
All eyes turned to Anara as she stood still, gripping the back of her chair, almost as if she were trying to hold Antariksh back through sheer willpower alone. Her black eyes were fixated on the holo display as if daring the black hole to challenge her authority over the ship.
“Captain!” shouted Ryan, breaking through her concentration. “We can’t hold this any longer. We have to stop!”
She nodded imperceptibly. Just a small motion of her head. Ryan confirmed her order to Madhavan.
Round 1 to the black hole, if that is what it was. It helped to objectify the black hole as an enemy. As always with Anara, once the enemy was known, her path became clearer. Her concentration was absolute, and her resolve hardened. This was not yet over. I will prevail
“That did not work. We are definitely within the event horizon.” Ryan looked out the window. There was a strange glow streaming in from the front of the ship. He turned around. There was deep blackness outside the porthole to the rear of the ship. What now? Extreme red-shifting, or something else?
“Absolutely sure?”
“Look outside the portholes. All light is being pulled in towards the centre of the hole. The same light is travelling away from us. The space behind us is bright while in front towards the black hole it is dark. That’s not a good sign. I don’t have enough data but if this is a Schwarzschild-type singularity then there will be no escape for us. However, if we are lucky and this is a charged, or rotating, or Kerr type of black hole, we might yet have a chance. But whatever we want to try will have to be done fast. Very fast.” He cursed inwardly in having wasted precious time in resolving the data. But there was nothing else he could have done. At least now, he could bring forth a sense of urgency.
“Each of those types of black holes have completely different characteristics, Ryan. All we have to go on are theoretical models of black holes. How do we make sure which one this is?”
“I don’t know enough about it yet to make a judgment call. All I can determine is that by looking at our lack of success so far, we cannot escape by using the power we have employed so far.”
“Care to explain that in plain English, Commander?” asked the Colonel. So far, he had been standing quietly near Jas, observing the action. A trained soldier, he knew when he was out of his depth. There would be many more such instances during the journey, he was sure of that. Maybe it was time for him to brush up on physics as well.
“Sorry, Colonel. Not right now. Ryan and I have work to do.” Anara was curt but not rude this time. She pulled up a chair and got busy with Ryan trying to solve equations that had puzzled the best brains in physics over many centuries. She did have something none of the physicists before could ever dream off—solid experimental data right there in front of her.
“Here, sir.
I’ll try and explain,” said Jas. “We really may not have time to get into all the details, though.” She closed her fist, made a pulling motion, using gestures to pull up a virtual screen, and drew a small circle in the centre of the screen with her forefinger. “Assume this is a singularity, Colonel, okay?”
“Uh, pardon my ignorance but what is a singularity?”
“It’s a region where spacetime curvature cannot be measured. It’s infinite.”
Fraser raised his eyebrows. Jas looked at screen to see if her black hole gravity simulation was still running. She decided that she did have a couple of minutes to spare and sighed, thinking uncharitably that he had better dumb down his explanation even further for the present audience.
“A singularity is a point where all matter is compressed into zero volume and therefore has infinite density, see? We know that all matter exerts a gravitational force on all other matter in the universe. The larger the mass, the stronger is its gravitational pull. Gravity at the surface of our sun is around twenty-eight times more than that on Earth while, gravity on the moon is one-sixth that of Earth since it is that much smaller. The effect of gravity also reduces when distance increases but that is not relevant right now. Now, a black hole singularity has a gravitational force thousands of times stronger than that of our sun depending on the amount of mass it has swallowed up. It is so strong that even photons of light moving at a velocity of 300000 km/sec cannot escape.”
She drew a large circle around the smaller circle. “This larger circle represents what is known as the event horizon, the boundary from within which light cannot escape from the gravity of the singularity. This is the point of no return. The boundary can be very large. Did you know that gravity is the weakest of all physical forces, but it can act over extremely large distances even thousands of light years?”
“And you are saying that we are inside this event horizon?”
“In all likelihood, yes we are. And as you have observed we cannot escape. We are trapped.”
