The Plan
This is a story about physics, a slightly hostile alien race, and a really big black hole. But really its not a story at all but a bunch of questions. Questions I'm hoping someone cleverer and more learned than I can answer. If you think you have the answers please post them below.
The story starts with an alien race, a type 3 on the Kardashev scale.
This particular alien race happens to have a presence in our galaxy and the story starts as they become aware of our existence. Their astronomers detect our planet and our existence on it, probably by the effect we have had on our atmosphere, but maybe also by our radio emissions. Once detected they go into full scale investigation and determine we will eventually become a threat to them if left unchecked.
Reports are written by their scientists and handed up to their governing structure. Estimates of how long before we start to expand outward into other star systems and how long before we, or our AI, start to turn the entire galaxy into grey goo with our von Neumann probes are estimated.
The bureaucrats and indeed their entire species had planned for this. Meticulous plans. And machines are at the ready for the moment when they discover another species. They have strict rules about xenocide, they would not allow themselves to destroy us, but they also do not want to sit back and watch us potentially destroy their galaxy. Meetings are held, debates debated, decisions decided and eventually a form stamped with the official seal to begin the enactment of the plan all knew would have to happen. They would remove our solar system from the galaxy.
Now for a Kardashev type 3 civilisation there are a whole number of ways to remove a star and its planets from the galactic plane, but the aliens have rules and they also don't like to take chances, which is why "the plan" was so meticulously planned and prepared for.
The plan starts with the gradual and meticulous build up of mass about 200,000 AU from the sun, which is about twice as far as the edge of the oort cloud. For the purposes of this story it doesn't really matter what type of mass it is other than to say its very dense and will probably contain at least one kugelblitz black hole (KBH), although it may be almost entirely made from them. The mass is added deliberately so that none of the planets in the solar system are affected, either directly or from interactions with the oort cloud or other bodies. Every time some mass is added at one side of the solar system, and equal amount is added opposite. Gradually these masses build up to form a Dyson Swarm (DS) completely encompassing the entire solar system. The centre of mass of the solar system stays centred on the solar barycenter with the gravitational pull of all the new masses perfectly cancelling out for everything within.
For observers on earth at first no-one would notice. Occasionally a star would wink out briefly causing astronomers to wonder if they had found a new planet or asteroid, but quickly it would become pretty obvious something was up as the gravitational lensing of everything became obvious and stars disappeared more often than they did not. But otherwise everything else would be normal. Scientists and governments would wonder what was going on and some panic might ensue, but life on earth would not be affected otherwise.
Now right now you might be worried that the internal temperature of the solar system is going to start creeping up, with a DS surrounding it and all. But the aliens are not interested in baking us. They are careful to ensure that on average the total amount of radiation leaving the system matches that entering. If the masses are made from KBHs the Hawking Radiation (HR) emitting outwardly is perfectly balanced by the solar radiation coming from within, otherwise the masses radiate the energy as infrared light.
The beauty of creating the masses from KBHs is that they can be constructed from afar, with the building material sent at the speed of light (C). This is pretty useful as none of the aliens want to be anywhere near the solar system once the plan is completed. In either case the masses are added carefully so that their angular momentum gradually pulls the solar system such that it accelerates past the escape velocity of the galaxy. This is commonly known as a gravity tractor.
That is part A of the plan. Eject the entire solar system out of the galactic plane and into interstellar space. It wont hurt the earthlings of course. All their energy comes from their star, in fact exiting the galaxy and heading off into the void may even protect them from the dangers of supernova.
But its not enough. Eventually the earthlings might develop the technology to span whatever distance they are from the galaxy, indeed it will take some time for their system to actually exit, so they need part B. Part B keeps the earthlings imprisoned in their system no matter what technology they develop.
Now you might be wondering, why bother with part A, and you do have a point, part B would be enough. But aliens being aliens it's never enough to just do the most sensible thing, you have to go one better and if you're going to imprison an entire star system then why not also eject that system into deep space?
Now part B is almost ready to be completed. They have amassed almost exactly 10,128,394,918,637 solar masses 200,000 AU from our star calculated to the last photon. Of course photons are constantly entering and leaving the system from radiation to and from the DS but they have accounted for that, in fact careful monitoring of the mass exactly to the photon is performed trillions of times a second by powerful processors embedded within it.
The generals in charge of the operation report back to their superiors, who report to their superiors until eventually the call comes through to the supreme leader. Its not every day that they discover new sentient intelligent life in a galaxy and its a sombre moment when they have to enact their plan. The final command to 'go' must come from the very top.
The supreme leader, looks once again through all the reports and takes a moment to reflect upon the outcome of the order he must now give. The quintillion to the power quintillion lives that depend on this happening weigh on his mind as he gives the go ahead to carry out the order.
A call is made to the operator, who sits at a terminal. It has a single button, its big and red of course. It needs a key and authorisation codes too, well you'd expect that. The call comes in, the codes are valid. Keys are turned and the button is pushed.
At this point a single photon is emitted from a laser 10 light days from the outside of the DS. It is of a very particular frequency and aimed precisely at a point on the swarm that will allow its energy to be added to its mass without a correction being applied prior by the swarm, so that its total mass energy will finally tip over the Schwarzschild Limit (SL). At this point, 10 days before the photon hits its target the fate of the entire solar system is already determined. On a Penrose diagram you could trace the impending event horizon to this moment.
For 10 days life inside the DS continues as normal, in fact to the greatest scientists and astronomers nothing can be detected as having happened. Until that is that the extra photon hits the DS. Then, amazingly, exactly nothing is still detected on earth. In fact nothing could possibly be detected for another 3 years 59 days 7 hours, 30 minutes and 46.6 seconds as that how long it takes light to travel 200,000 AU. (Well OK, the earth isn't in the centre of the solar system so it would be that +- about 8 minutes). But, something does happen when that photon hits. That photon takes the total mass of the entire solar system (up till the edge of the DS) *just* above the SL, which until that point, it was just below.
Technically, from that moment onward the entire solar system including the DS that the aliens had created, is now a black hole. A really really big black hole. (The strange thing about black holes is that the bigger they are, the lower the gravitational field at their surface. In fact, this black hole only has about 1.5 ms2 of gravity at its surface, which is just a bit less than that of the moon. You could say that the aliens are a bit wimpy wanting to be 10 light days away when they fire their 1 photon laser, but you try creating a black hole that is over 6 light years wide. Its enough to give you the heeby geebies even if you could technically escape from it using the thrust of a particularly impressive fart).
Any aliens around near the source of the photon, 20 days after it was fired would be able to watch the rather impressive DS that they had so carefully constructed blink out of existence and a black hole appear instead. Except it wouldn't. As the BH/DS is over 6 light years wide, presumably the surface of the BH would appear to grow outwards from the point of impact, consuming the DS but taking 3 years to reach the edge and 6 years to completely encompass the entire DS. (correct?)
So the entire solar system is now a black hole, but its impossible for earthlings to know (correct?), because the information about the extra photon of energy can only travel inwards towards the earth and the sun and everything else in the solar system, at the speed of light and the sun is over 3 light years away from the point that that photon hit.
It is said that all of the information about the contents of a BH are encoded in its surface, this is known as the holographic principle. If correct and information cannot travel faster than C, does it really take over 3 years for the BH to fully form? Whilst nothing, not even information can travel through Space-Time (ST) faster than C, ST itself does not have this restriction. As the BH is actually just the bending of ST perhaps it happens in an instant of time?
Additionally the BH is losing photons/energy continually through HR. When it formed it had literally the smallest amount of additional energy it is possible to contain to tip it over the SC limit. When a BH loses energy its radius decreases, and its density increases but it doesnt stop being a BH. Once a black hole, always a black hole. (correct?) What would happen if at this point the entire DS decided to stop maintaining the balance but to allow more energy to escape than entered? It will take over 6 years for the BH to fully form, plenty of time for the "rear" parts of the BH to lose mass and take the entire DS back below the SL.
This is the confusing thing about Black Holes. Large objects are supposed to be intuitive, (even if quantum object are not) but Black Holes are most definitely not. As they get larger they get less dense. This means that any one point in space occupied by a BH would not be a BH if it were somehow magically separated from the rest as its density wouldn't be enough.
Lets also add to the story. Lets imagine there is an alien that is 10 light days away from the BH. At this distance, because its 6 light years wide, it would appear like 'he' was right next to it from his perspective as it would take up pretty much the full 180 degrees of his field of view. As he 'flies' closer in his very advanced star ship, he cant tell that he's getting closer without the help of his instruments. Eventually he gets within 1 meter from the event horizon at which point he stops his ship and gets out (presumably with a space suit of some kind). At this point there is only 1.5ms2 of gravity pulling him towards the BH and his ship easily counters this so he 'hangs' from a tether and reaches out towards the completely invisible EH. He cannot 'see' any difference in the space but his 'computer' is telling him that it is there. He reaches out an appendage (we can imagine it as an arm) so that it just crosses the EH. There is no crazy gravity to spaghettify it, its hard to imagine why he cannot just pull it back towards him. But apparently once its crossed the EH it cannot come back, not even light can, but why? The gravitational differential between just past the EH and 'him' is negligible. Please someone explain this to me because its melting my brain.
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The story starts with an alien race, a type 3 on the Kardashev scale.
This particular alien race happens to have a presence in our galaxy and the story starts as they become aware of our existence. Their astronomers detect our planet and our existence on it, probably by the effect we have had on our atmosphere, but maybe also by our radio emissions. Once detected they go into full scale investigation and determine we will eventually become a threat to them if left unchecked.
Reports are written by their scientists and handed up to their governing structure. Estimates of how long before we start to expand outward into other star systems and how long before we, or our AI, start to turn the entire galaxy into grey goo with our von Neumann probes are estimated.
The bureaucrats and indeed their entire species had planned for this. Meticulous plans. And machines are at the ready for the moment when they discover another species. They have strict rules about xenocide, they would not allow themselves to destroy us, but they also do not want to sit back and watch us potentially destroy their galaxy. Meetings are held, debates debated, decisions decided and eventually a form stamped with the official seal to begin the enactment of the plan all knew would have to happen. They would remove our solar system from the galaxy.
Now for a Kardashev type 3 civilisation there are a whole number of ways to remove a star and its planets from the galactic plane, but the aliens have rules and they also don't like to take chances, which is why "the plan" was so meticulously planned and prepared for.
The plan starts with the gradual and meticulous build up of mass about 200,000 AU from the sun, which is about twice as far as the edge of the oort cloud. For the purposes of this story it doesn't really matter what type of mass it is other than to say its very dense and will probably contain at least one kugelblitz black hole (KBH), although it may be almost entirely made from them. The mass is added deliberately so that none of the planets in the solar system are affected, either directly or from interactions with the oort cloud or other bodies. Every time some mass is added at one side of the solar system, and equal amount is added opposite. Gradually these masses build up to form a Dyson Swarm (DS) completely encompassing the entire solar system. The centre of mass of the solar system stays centred on the solar barycenter with the gravitational pull of all the new masses perfectly cancelling out for everything within.
For observers on earth at first no-one would notice. Occasionally a star would wink out briefly causing astronomers to wonder if they had found a new planet or asteroid, but quickly it would become pretty obvious something was up as the gravitational lensing of everything became obvious and stars disappeared more often than they did not. But otherwise everything else would be normal. Scientists and governments would wonder what was going on and some panic might ensue, but life on earth would not be affected otherwise.
Now right now you might be worried that the internal temperature of the solar system is going to start creeping up, with a DS surrounding it and all. But the aliens are not interested in baking us. They are careful to ensure that on average the total amount of radiation leaving the system matches that entering. If the masses are made from KBHs the Hawking Radiation (HR) emitting outwardly is perfectly balanced by the solar radiation coming from within, otherwise the masses radiate the energy as infrared light.
The beauty of creating the masses from KBHs is that they can be constructed from afar, with the building material sent at the speed of light (C). This is pretty useful as none of the aliens want to be anywhere near the solar system once the plan is completed. In either case the masses are added carefully so that their angular momentum gradually pulls the solar system such that it accelerates past the escape velocity of the galaxy. This is commonly known as a gravity tractor.
That is part A of the plan. Eject the entire solar system out of the galactic plane and into interstellar space. It wont hurt the earthlings of course. All their energy comes from their star, in fact exiting the galaxy and heading off into the void may even protect them from the dangers of supernova.
But its not enough. Eventually the earthlings might develop the technology to span whatever distance they are from the galaxy, indeed it will take some time for their system to actually exit, so they need part B. Part B keeps the earthlings imprisoned in their system no matter what technology they develop.
Now you might be wondering, why bother with part A, and you do have a point, part B would be enough. But aliens being aliens it's never enough to just do the most sensible thing, you have to go one better and if you're going to imprison an entire star system then why not also eject that system into deep space?
Now part B is almost ready to be completed. They have amassed almost exactly 10,128,394,918,637 solar masses 200,000 AU from our star calculated to the last photon. Of course photons are constantly entering and leaving the system from radiation to and from the DS but they have accounted for that, in fact careful monitoring of the mass exactly to the photon is performed trillions of times a second by powerful processors embedded within it.
The generals in charge of the operation report back to their superiors, who report to their superiors until eventually the call comes through to the supreme leader. Its not every day that they discover new sentient intelligent life in a galaxy and its a sombre moment when they have to enact their plan. The final command to 'go' must come from the very top.
The supreme leader, looks once again through all the reports and takes a moment to reflect upon the outcome of the order he must now give. The quintillion to the power quintillion lives that depend on this happening weigh on his mind as he gives the go ahead to carry out the order.
A call is made to the operator, who sits at a terminal. It has a single button, its big and red of course. It needs a key and authorisation codes too, well you'd expect that. The call comes in, the codes are valid. Keys are turned and the button is pushed.
At this point a single photon is emitted from a laser 10 light days from the outside of the DS. It is of a very particular frequency and aimed precisely at a point on the swarm that will allow its energy to be added to its mass without a correction being applied prior by the swarm, so that its total mass energy will finally tip over the Schwarzschild Limit (SL). At this point, 10 days before the photon hits its target the fate of the entire solar system is already determined. On a Penrose diagram you could trace the impending event horizon to this moment.
For 10 days life inside the DS continues as normal, in fact to the greatest scientists and astronomers nothing can be detected as having happened. Until that is that the extra photon hits the DS. Then, amazingly, exactly nothing is still detected on earth. In fact nothing could possibly be detected for another 3 years 59 days 7 hours, 30 minutes and 46.6 seconds as that how long it takes light to travel 200,000 AU. (Well OK, the earth isn't in the centre of the solar system so it would be that +- about 8 minutes). But, something does happen when that photon hits. That photon takes the total mass of the entire solar system (up till the edge of the DS) *just* above the SL, which until that point, it was just below.
Technically, from that moment onward the entire solar system including the DS that the aliens had created, is now a black hole. A really really big black hole. (The strange thing about black holes is that the bigger they are, the lower the gravitational field at their surface. In fact, this black hole only has about 1.5 ms2 of gravity at its surface, which is just a bit less than that of the moon. You could say that the aliens are a bit wimpy wanting to be 10 light days away when they fire their 1 photon laser, but you try creating a black hole that is over 6 light years wide. Its enough to give you the heeby geebies even if you could technically escape from it using the thrust of a particularly impressive fart).
Any aliens around near the source of the photon, 20 days after it was fired would be able to watch the rather impressive DS that they had so carefully constructed blink out of existence and a black hole appear instead. Except it wouldn't. As the BH/DS is over 6 light years wide, presumably the surface of the BH would appear to grow outwards from the point of impact, consuming the DS but taking 3 years to reach the edge and 6 years to completely encompass the entire DS. (correct?)
So the entire solar system is now a black hole, but its impossible for earthlings to know (correct?), because the information about the extra photon of energy can only travel inwards towards the earth and the sun and everything else in the solar system, at the speed of light and the sun is over 3 light years away from the point that that photon hit.
It is said that all of the information about the contents of a BH are encoded in its surface, this is known as the holographic principle. If correct and information cannot travel faster than C, does it really take over 3 years for the BH to fully form? Whilst nothing, not even information can travel through Space-Time (ST) faster than C, ST itself does not have this restriction. As the BH is actually just the bending of ST perhaps it happens in an instant of time?
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| Scientifically accurate depiction of the evolution of the solar system's gravity well |
Additionally the BH is losing photons/energy continually through HR. When it formed it had literally the smallest amount of additional energy it is possible to contain to tip it over the SC limit. When a BH loses energy its radius decreases, and its density increases but it doesnt stop being a BH. Once a black hole, always a black hole. (correct?) What would happen if at this point the entire DS decided to stop maintaining the balance but to allow more energy to escape than entered? It will take over 6 years for the BH to fully form, plenty of time for the "rear" parts of the BH to lose mass and take the entire DS back below the SL.
This is the confusing thing about Black Holes. Large objects are supposed to be intuitive, (even if quantum object are not) but Black Holes are most definitely not. As they get larger they get less dense. This means that any one point in space occupied by a BH would not be a BH if it were somehow magically separated from the rest as its density wouldn't be enough.
Lets also add to the story. Lets imagine there is an alien that is 10 light days away from the BH. At this distance, because its 6 light years wide, it would appear like 'he' was right next to it from his perspective as it would take up pretty much the full 180 degrees of his field of view. As he 'flies' closer in his very advanced star ship, he cant tell that he's getting closer without the help of his instruments. Eventually he gets within 1 meter from the event horizon at which point he stops his ship and gets out (presumably with a space suit of some kind). At this point there is only 1.5ms2 of gravity pulling him towards the BH and his ship easily counters this so he 'hangs' from a tether and reaches out towards the completely invisible EH. He cannot 'see' any difference in the space but his 'computer' is telling him that it is there. He reaches out an appendage (we can imagine it as an arm) so that it just crosses the EH. There is no crazy gravity to spaghettify it, its hard to imagine why he cannot just pull it back towards him. But apparently once its crossed the EH it cannot come back, not even light can, but why? The gravitational differential between just past the EH and 'him' is negligible. Please someone explain this to me because its melting my brain.
So already we have identified questions. Further questions as to the fate of the solar system are:
Black holes are posited to have a singularity at their centre. This black hole contains almost all of its mass at its radius (at least at the moment of formation), will it still have a singularity? What hope is there for the earthlings? Do they really get to survive for another 3 years after the BH forms/starts to form? Will they ever know that they are being consumed by a black hole or will life inside continue as normal? Have the aliens just wasted over 100 galaxies of energy to destroy our solar system when they could've done it a million different ways with orders of magnitude less effort?
Is the information about the contents of the BH restricted to C when its being "moved" to the radius, or is it able to do so instantaneously/faster than light. Can we make a connection about the movement of this information faster than light and the inflationary epoch of the universe? Does this have anything to say about whether our entire universe exists inside a universe sized black hole?
Thanks for reading, please leave a comment, even to correct my grammar or spelling.
This post is inspired by the information and teachings of Derek from Veritasium, Isaac Arthur from SAFWIA, PBS SpaceTime and others. Thanks guys.
This post is inspired by the information and teachings of Derek from Veritasium, Isaac Arthur from SAFWIA, PBS SpaceTime and others. Thanks guys.
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