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Short Wave

SPACE WEEK: What Would It Be Like To Fall Into A Black Hole?

Short Wave

NPR

Daily News, Nature, Life Sciences, Astronomy, Science, News

4.7 β€’ 6K Ratings

πŸ—“οΈ 2 September 2020

⏱️ 14 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Black holes are one of the most beguiling objects in our universe. What are they exactly? How do they affect the universe? And what would it be like to fall into one? We venture beyond the point of no return with Yale astrophysicist Priyamvada Natarajan, into a fascinating world of black holes β€” where the laws of physics break down. (Encore episode.)

Transcript

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0:00.0

Hey everybody, Emily Quang here. It is Space Week on Shortwave.

0:04.0

And today we wanted to throw it back to one of our most otherworldly episodes,

0:08.9

one in which I truly did not know anything going in,

0:12.0

but walked away thinking about our universe a little differently.

0:15.6

Okay, here's the show.

0:17.7

You're listening to Shortwave from NPR.

0:22.5

Of all the objects thopping around in our universe,

0:26.3

few are as bizarre and enigmatic as black holes. Just ask Priya Natarajan.

0:33.7

It's like the point where all-known laws of physics break down.

0:37.1

She's an astrophysicist at Yale University studying extremely cool cosmological phenomena

0:43.0

like black holes.

0:44.4

So for me, the personal attraction, the gravitational pull, pun intended,

0:50.5

toward black holes, I mean, really is that they kind of represent the limits of knowledge.

0:54.4

Because way before black holes were mapped, studied,

0:58.4

their picture taken, you may remember that famous image from last year,

1:04.0

black holes were just an idea, a mathematical solution to Einstein's theory of general relativity.

1:10.4

So, you know, Newton was able to tell us how gravity worked,

1:13.8

but Newton could not tell us why gravity is that way.

1:17.6

Einstein was able to come up with this beautiful theory that combined the shape of space

1:25.2

matter and motion into one theory.

1:28.7

The theory of general relativity?

1:30.8

Absolutely. The theory of general relativity does exactly that.

...

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