First black hole for light created on Earth

First black hole for light created on Earth

www.newscientist.com

An electromagnetic "black hole" that sucks in surrounding light has been built for the first time.

The device, which works at microwave frequencies, may soon be extended to trap visible light, leading to an entirely new way of harvesting solar energy to generate electricity.

The key to making light curve inwards is to make the shell's permittivity – which affects the electric component of an electromagnetic wave – increase smoothly from the outer to the inner surface. This is analogous to

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Such a device could be used to harvest solar energy in places where the light is too diffuse for mirrors to concentrate it onto a solar cell. An optical black hole would suck it all in and direct it at a solar cell sitting at the core. "If that works, you will no longer require these huge parabolic mirrors to collect light," says Narimanov.

Sounds interesting
Of course what are the implications?

I mean..... what if the black hole is able to grow?


www.newscientist.com
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reply to post by ModernAcademia


It's not a real black hole, so there is nothing to worry about. It's just an apparatus that mimics the effect of 'sucking' light towards it. This apparatus is just a more efficient way of collecting light, nothing dangerous.

reminds me of a gravity wave generator Bob Lazer used to talk about., If it can bend light, is it bending light or warping the space around the light.

I'm wondering if this device (or something similar) might be the first step towards cloaking. If we could figure out how to trap the light that reflects off of something (how we see things) wouldn't it then be invisible? Or would it be black?

[edit on 14-10-2009 by Nutter]

reply to post by ShiftTrio


Read the article, it has nothing to do with gravity or actual black holes.

reply to post by Nutter


Scientist's are actually working on something 'kind of' similar to this, it also works in only the microwave range, but like this device the two can be scaled up to include visible wavelengths. I'm hoping the cloaking technology happens before I die, would be cool to see it in operation.

Originally posted by Nutter
I'm wondering if this device (or something similar) might be the first step towards cloaking. If we could figure out how to trap the light that reflects off of something (how we see things) wouldn't it then be invisible? Or would it be black?

[edit on 14-10-2009 by Nutter]

Now that's an interesting question. My first answer would have been that the object would be invisible because all we see is reflected light. But what of any objects directly behind this "optical black hole"?

Wasn't there something in Titor's 'time machine' that used some kind of bent laser? I'm not necessarily saying it gives the Titor story more credence but it was the first thing I thought of.

reply to post by Merriman Weir

Titor's time machine used a singularity which is far different than what this device does. This device isn't a real black hole nor uses gravity at all to produce it's effects. It's just an efficient light trap.

Originally posted by Nutter
I'm wondering if this device (or something similar) might be the first step towards cloaking. If we could figure out how to trap the light that reflects off of something (how we see things) wouldn't it then be invisible? Or would it be black?

[edit on 14-10-2009 by Nutter]

I am still pretty new to a lot of this but wasnt cloaking toyed with during the Philadelphia Experiment?

Regardless a device like this could be used to collect light from the deeper regions of the universe. It may be a boost to our telescopes somehow.

Originally posted by sirnex
It's not a real black hole, so there is nothing to worry about. It's just an apparatus that mimics the effect of 'sucking' light towards it. This apparatus is just a more efficient way of collecting light, nothing dangerous.

I haven't even read the article yet, but are you saying that the "black hole" part was just added to make the headline more sensational, or perhaps to more easily explain the idea to rubes like me?

Because if this is just a little appliance that slurps up light and spits out electricity, then maybe it's okay, but if this has anything to do with a real black hole whatsoever, I don't think those stop at light, I think they will eat the device itself as well.

But I have also heard black holes may not even exist. And that our universe may be the reverse, a white hole.

So I have no idea what to think. I guess I will go read the article now and try to contain my brain if things get crazy.

Edit:

"An electromagnetic "black holeMovie Camera" that sucks in surrounding light has been built for the first time."

That part where it says "black holeMovie Camera" is what pasted after I copied that part, it was a link taking me to a video of what it would be like to fall into a real black hole. So that is already as misleading and confusing as possible in the first sentence.

"The device, which works at microwave frequencies, may soon be extended to trap visible light, leading to an entirely new way of harvesting solar energy to generate electricity."

Cool, cool, sounds awesome, providing that it isn't a real black hole and doesn't doom us all, I would be glad to have one. If you attach a light bulb to it and then feed the lightbulb with a small percentage of the collected energy, maybe you could have a perpetual energy device! Sci fi mumbo jumbo probably though.


[edit on 14-10-2009 by BaronVonGodzilla]

reply to post by BaronVonGodzilla


Pretty much is just a sensationalist title. I mean, they use the title to describe the seemingly similar effect, but really the device isn't similar to a real black hole anyways. Far from it thankfully.

reply to post by sirnex


Good, like I said, some people claim they don't even exist, but if they DO exist, then I really don't want to ever hear about one anywhere near our little place in the universe. Hearing that stuff scares me, and although it will show I am a fool, when I first opened it I was horrified and worried it was about LHC or CERN. People say that can't spawn a black hole, but I don't know. I have heard confliccting stuff and I am worried about them trying to create anything weird like that inside our planet and our atmosphere. If they do find Higgs Boson, what if it is an instant Big bang again and everything is destroyed instantly? Well if that happens I guess we'll never know, but maybe there is something worse in between.

reply to post by BaronVonGodzilla


Nah, none of that stuff will happen at all. Some people are just more apocalyptic than others. It has to be one of mankind's biggest hobbies, predicting when we will off ourselves. We're more arrogant than we are intelligent, certainly not intelligent enough to destroy the whole universe.

Originally posted by Merriman Weir
Wasn't there something in Titor's 'time machine' that used some kind of bent laser? I'm not necessarily saying it gives the Titor story more credence but it was the first thing I thought of.

Heh, John Titor...

Now there's a name I haven't seen in a while...

Originally posted by Nutter
I'm wondering if this device (or something similar) might be the first step towards cloaking. If we could figure out how to trap the light that reflects off of something (how we see things) wouldn't it then be invisible? Or would it be black?

it would be black or void. remember that what we see is what the object reflects back to us.

bring up the age old question.. is the ball red, or is it everything BUT red, since that is what it reflects back to us.

Originally posted by ModernAcademia
Sounds interesting
Of course what are the implications?

I mean..... what if the black hole is able to grow?

this is essentially a novel approach to your basic parabolic mirror. what I find interesting is that it can be 'tuned' to different wavelengths. now, depending on what its virtual size is (how much of an area of light it collects), could this be used to advance the astronomy field (they have sensors that work in a similar fashion).

more intriguing, can this be reversed, thinking that if a small intense light is more energy efficient, can this be a good 'spreader' to make yet a more efficient lightbulb?

Originally posted by ModernAcademia

Such a device could be used to harvest solar energy in places where the light is too diffuse for mirrors to concentrate it onto a solar cell. An optical black hole would suck it all in and direct it at a solar cell sitting at the core. "If that works, you will no longer require these huge parabolic mirrors to collect light," says Narimanov.

Sounds interesting
Of course what are the implications?

I mean..... what if the black hole is able to grow?


www.newscientist.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

What the?

Did you post the article without even reading the "hole" thing?

I seriously don't understand how you came up with that question.

Originally posted by sirnex
reply to post by Merriman Weir

 

Titor's time machine used a singularity which is far different than what this device does. This device isn't a real black hole nor uses gravity at all to produce it's effects. It's just an efficient light trap.

I wasn't trying to suggest it was a similar thing, other than the 'bent light' issue. I just thought I remembered ripostes to the Titor story focusing on the point that light couldn't be bent in such a localised way. Again, I'm not trying to suggest this supports the Titor story either.

Very interesting. I would like to see a demonstration. I am curious about where the microwave radiation goes. Does it radiate in the core and eject somewhere ?

In the case of visible light, which they claim they should be able accomplish by end of year 2009, this would make a hell of a solar collector. Everything from solar weapons to solar furnaces would become a piece of cake. You could even use a small one to run fiber optic lighting. If it is efficient enough simple moon or starlight might be able to be concentrated enough for basic indoor lighting in a house.