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Wednesday October 28, 2009
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Researchers figured out how to simulate a miniature black hole in a lab--though fortunately for us, it's not going to eat the Earth, as Space.com reports.
"The device we created is not a real black hole, but only a device to mimic the black-hole effect," said researcher Tie Jun Cui, a professor at Southeast University in China, in the article. "Actually, the device can trap and absorb the electromagnetic waves which hit the device. Hence we call it as the Electromagnetic Black Hole." Essentially, the pseudo black hole sucks in light, but not mass.
The team "built the black hole" (I love my job) out of circuit board, by linking 60 concentric circular layers etched with copper patterns, the report said. In turn, the patterns interact with electromagnetic waves. That means the device, as a result, absorbs any incoming light that's in the microwave range of the spectrum--but not any mass. (Image credit: Cheng/Cui/Arxiv)
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October 28, 2009 11:23 PM
That's amazing - so the thing sucks down microwaves, but isn't strong enough to suck down anything else - that's a pretty narrow bandwidth of EM radiation, although I find it pretty interesting that microwaves are more energetic than radio waves so....I guess none of the scientists conducting that experiment that day were listening to FM radio in the vicinity. :D
That being said, microwaves and radio waves are pretty denergetic targets when it comes to EM radiation. I wonder how big that thing would have to be to start sucking down visible light, or photos more highly energized like UV light or X-Rays.