Wednesday, November 07, 2007

More Black Hole Thoughts...

Lately I've been driving my fellow theorists on the fuselage a little crazy by pushing my micro/mini black hole thesis with an almost missionary zeal. I like to think I'm pretty open-minded, particularly where theories about a fictional TV show are concerned. But the more I learn about micro/mini black holes, the more they strike me as The Explanation for what was going on behind the concrete in Swan -- the science/pseudo-science fits so neatly with clues from the show. To summarize some of the evidence that doesn't appear in my original post:

*Claire described the sky as turning "violet," which could refer to ultra-violet radiation like that released by an evaporating mini black hole.

*The violet/purple sky could also have been an auroral effect (e.g., like Aurora Borealis) caused by such radiation bombarding the atmosphere.

*Such a high-energy radiation burst could also cause an EMP.

*In Not in Portland, Aldo is seen reading a chapter on black holes from A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking.

*Courtesy of Mike NY, this source states that the high energy radiation released by black hole evaporation might cause a visible "hadronic fireball," which could also explain the violet/purple sky. It may just be a coincidence, but this depiction of black hole evaporation from the same source seems to be colored violet.

*Also courtesy of Mike NY, the button might have been linked to some degaussing mechanism. Per the original post, an evaporating black hole could theoretically be stabilized by charging it magnetically. The degaussing may have been required periodically to shrink the black hole down to size or otherwise manage its growth.

*In a deleted scene from Season 3, Hurley compared Desmond's precognition to the Fantastic Four, who gained their powers by exposure to cosmic radiation like that released by an evaporating mini black hole.

*In the film Event Horizon, the ship is powered by a mini black hole and features the line "Liberate te ex inferis" (save yourself from hell) which also appears on the Blast Door Map.

6 comments:

Egroh08 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Interesting stuff BM!

I wonder, though, is The Orchid related to the mini black hole? Perhaps after many failed attempts and too many dangerous situations, they decided to build The Swan right over it.

Capcom said...

Sweet! Gee, I didn't even think about the button-pressing "release" as being a degaussing operation. But that would make a lot of sense, duh. How would that be done? It's usually done with magnetism, so it either utilized the island's natural magnetism, or it's a separate magnetic unit perhaps.

I don't know anything about mini-holes, so thanks, now I'll have to look that up too, haha. :o)

Dr. Candle did mention in the Swan film that the station was previously used for studying the electromagnetic stuff, so it makes sense to me that the Swan used to be the Orchid.

Good thoughts! :-)

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Cool_Freeze said...

This is very intriguing. Does this mean the black hole is gone? Or does it mean it is permenantly open?

Bigmouth said...

egroh: Hey buddy! I've been bad about participating over on 4815162342.com but I really appreciate your kind comments there and here. Yes, I too believe they built the Swan on top of the Orchid, or at least that the two were once connected, perhaps via the blocked tunnel in Swan.

capcom: LOL! I no more idea how to degauss a micro black hole than I do, say, a computer. But it is telling to me that giving a black hole magnetic charge stabilizes it against evaporation. If that's right, than periodic degaussing seems a plausible way of preventing it from growing too large. BTW, the mini black hole angle is the premise of Fixing a Hole...

CF: I think you've asked the million-dollar question. I'm guessing that the micro black hole is gone -- poof! -- and with it any wormholes into the past or future. Access to the Island is now only in real time via a series of wrinkles in spacetime from around the planet. They may always be open, or they may open and close according to some stimulus. There seems to be one in the sky, that Naomi and Henry Gale fell through, and another underwater, which the submarine utilized to come and go.