I predicted this controversial new black hole theory in 2011

This post contains spoilers for my 2011 novel THE EDGE OF DARKNESS, a sci-fi about cyborgs in deep space.

Please visit The Edge of Darkness page on my website and to find places you can purchase.

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Just today I saw a news article about a new theory regarding the event horizon in black holes.

BLACK HOLES: WHAT ARE THEY?

Although no one has ever actually ‘seen’ a black hole, researchers say that it is the result of a star, one many times larger than ours, going supernova, which results in the remaining matter being pulled together by a gravity so strong that nothing, not matter, not even light, can pass through. They are called black holes because light ‘bends’ around them due to their gravitational strength, but once past the ‘event horizon’ no light can pass.

According to NASA,

The supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy is called Sagittarius A. It has a mass equal to about 4 million suns and would fit inside a ball with a diameter about the size of the sun.

WHAT DOES THE NEW RESEARCH SAY?

The new research, published in the journal Physical Review Letters, hypothesis that it is possible for a person to bypass the singularity and in doing so, break Einstein’s Law of General Relativity.

The law of General Relativity states that the laws of physics apply to everything, but black holes can rip apart the fabric of space and time, therefore negating the laws of physics.

Deep inside a black hole, past its event horizon, is the singularity, a place where even time ceases to exist.

Everything the black hole has ‘eaten’ will reach a point, a second ‘Cauchy’ event horizon, on its journey to the singularity, and this is the point where, with a specific type of black hole, matter may be able to bypass the singularity.

“Passing through a black hole could open up a whole new future, but it would erase your past”

“An enormous, electrically-charged black hole would allow things to pass through this Cauchy horizon and dodge the singularity at its heart.”

And what happens when the singularity is dodged? When time itself has been manipulated?

“Your past has been erased. Your future is eternal.

This is what the mathematicians and physicists believe is the outcome of crossing a black hole’s Cauchy horizon.”

In other words:

Researchers believe people can pass through them. It’s just that your past will be erased even as your future becomes infinite.

HOW DOES THIS RELATE TO The Edge of Darkness?

In The Edge of Darkness, towards the end of the novel my hero Max falls through a black hole and emerges 400 years in the past. She erases this past and switches into one of the many posisble futures.

One of my readers laughed at me and said, “It’s highly implausible this would actually happen.”

I said, “Sure, that’s why it’s called science fiction.”

Now who’s laughing?

Do you think someone in scientific research got their hands on a copy of The Edge of Darkness and got thinking about the events within?

I’ll probably never know, but it’s exciting to think that life is imitating MY art.