Singularities Can Exist Outside Black Holes—in Other Universes

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August 26, 2021

Dear Reader, This week, we're thinking about black holes. Or, rather, what hides within them. Our lead story discusses whether singularities—points of infinite density predicted by general relativity to exist inside black holes—can actually exist in the wider outside universe as well. (Spoiler alert: the short answer appears to be "yes," at least for universes that possess more than three dimensions of space!) Elsewhere this week, we have articles about subpar public reactions to Blue Origin's spaceflight plans, the potential for building big telescopes on the Tibetan Plateau, the physics and hype of hypersonic weaponry and more. Enjoy!

Lee Billings, Senior Editor, Space & Physics @LeeBillings

Black Holes Singularities Can Exist Outside Black Holes--in Other Universes Recent work has shown how "naked singularities" might defy the cosmic censorship conjecture By Brendan Z. Foster

Astronomy This Report Could Make or Break the Next 30 Years of U.S. Astronomy A battle for the future of American stargazing is about to begin—and the stakes are sky high By Lee Billings

Space Exploration Why Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin Is So Reviled Economic inequality, an indulgent trip to space and an ongoing legal battle with NASA are putting the space company in the hot seat By Chelsea Gohd,SPACE.com

Astronomy Chinese Astronomers Eye Tibetan Plateau Site for Observatory Project Years of weather monitoring suggest a high-altitude locale in Qinghai Province could host future telescopes By Meghan Bartels,SPACE.com

Astrophysics The Physics and Hype of Hypersonic Weapons These novel missiles cannot live up to the grand promises made on their behalf, aerodynamics shows By David Wright,Cameron Tracy

Behavior What God, Quantum Mechanics and Consciousness Have in Common Theories that try to explain these big metaphysical mysteries fall short, making agnosticism the only sensible stance By John Horgan

Mathematics A Deep Math Dive into Why Some Infinities Are Bigger Than Others The size of certain infinite sets has been a mystery. Now, it turns out, each one is different than the next, and they can all be ordered by size By Martin Goldstern,Jakob Kellner

Planetary Science Brown Dwarfs Could Reveal Secrets of Planet and Star Formation They're not quite stars and not quite planets but can help us understand both By Katelyn Allers

Cosmology When Physicists Follow Their Gut Fred Hoyle and George Gamow were brilliant iconoclasts who reached opposite conclusions about the expanding universe (for the record, Gamow was right) By Paul Halpern

FROM THE STORE Scientific American Volume 325, Issue 3

QUOTE OF THE DAY "Bezos seems to have really strayed from the founding principles of Blue Origin. The public, and many in Congress, look at Blue Origin and Bezos and wonder why someone who is worth $200 billion is protesting and suing NASA for money to build a lunar lander. If it is that important to build a highway to space, then start building it. Government contracts will eventually follow if what you build serves a useful purpose." Eric Berger, journalist

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FROM THE ARCHIVE In Search of Naked Singularities The "cosmic censorship" hypothesis says they shouldn't exist—but is it possible that we've already detected them and misinterpreted their nature? By Avi Loeb | May 2020

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