When so much of anything accretes into one small place in space, it may all eventually collapse in on itself creating cosmic enigmas we know as black holes. That should include light, but now new research seems to prove that wrong.
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00:00When so much of anything accretes into a small place in space, it may all eventually collapse
00:08in on itself, creating cosmic enigmas we know as black holes.
00:13According to an aged theory from this guy, the equation E equals mc squared outlines
00:17a relationship between mass and energy, such that enough of anything, even light, should
00:22be able to collect and turn into a black hole.
00:24However, now experts say that a black hole made from light might not actually be possible.
00:29One of these types of theoretical black holes is a tiny proton-sized one commonly called
00:33ball lightning.
00:34They were thought to be able to occur within the beams of high-powered lasers, but now
00:38new research posits that's just not the case.
00:40The appearance of ball lightning is prevented by what's called the Schwinger effect, or
00:44where matter can be created in that strong electrical field.
00:47With the researchers writing, our analysis strongly suggests that the formation of black
00:51holes solely from electromagnetic radiation is impossible, either by concentrating light
00:56in a hypothetical laboratory setting, or in naturally occurring astrophysical phenomena.
01:01They say that their math proves that it's at least impossible on a scale from around
01:04the size of Jupiter all the way down to one that is tinier than a proton.
01:08Still, they admit that in the strange conditions of the early universe, it may have once been
01:13possible.