Column Chronicles: A history of the Black Hole, part 1

A history of the Black Hole, part 1

Frank Cotolo
August 3, 2023

These days, conversations about outer space are filled with two words, one of them "black" and the other "hole". Put those two words together in that order and you have "Black Hole."

It was only decades ago that the term Black Hole meant nothing and although that is a literal translation of the term, it was not a proven piece of outer space objects. Albert Einstein mentioned the phenomena in 1916 but he did not call it a Black Hole.

"I was there," said scientist Weiner Ridstone, "and I thought I heard Al call the concept a Relavity Bubble."

No one took credit for the term until 1967, though Remus Von Demas, a German scientist, called Ridstone a "smarty pants" for agreeing with Einstein. Astronomer John Wheeler coined the phrase and by that time Von Demas was too old to care about astronomy any longer.

Even the common astro-fan has difficulty explaining a Black Hole. "It was once a star, I think," said astro-fan Nick Neiminster. "Then it gets dark over a billion years, give or take a million, and becomes a Black Hole and is sucks things into a big unknown void."

The first photo of a Black Hole was taken in 2019. "It looked like a big bruise on a human leg," said Don Freckle, an astro-journalist. I had a wound just like it when I was ten, after I got hit by a big boot my friend was wearing."

Black Holes have become the talk of the galaxy in astro-science circles. One scientists claims there are at least one hundred of them in our galaxy, though others say the number is more like sixty and others claim the number is six hundred and two (there is reportedly a betting pool among the smartest space docs, though no one thinks they'll live long enough to find out, no less collect on a bet).

Lots of theories circulate about what one Black Hole can mean to the state of a galaxy, so it is mindboggling what more than one may do.

...to be continued.

Frank Cotolo can be found hosting the talk and interview programme Cotolo Chronicles. You can send him an e-mail at this address: frank@148.ca.