h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I realize that everything about black holes make sense in theory, but I seem to remember reading somewhere that we don't have any solid proof that black holes actually exist. Well . . . by proof I mean visual accounts. If anyone can tell me, or direct me to some source of information, I'd be grateful.

Lawn Gnome

If by proof you mean whether someone has seen one or touched one--the answer is no. It is a concept about which physicists are getting proof.The main reason being you cannot see it coz as you must know light too doesnt escape it. But black holes emit radiation. How radiation escapes is a different story altogther. You can observe this radiation and determine whether it is coming from a black hole or a pulsar or a neutron star etc. Further if this radiation seems to originate from a seemingly small realm in space then u can remove a lot of possibilities.
There are theories about the creation of tiny black holes which instantaneously appear and disappear. This is supposed to happen in the ionosphere and people are looking at duplicating this phenomenon. When it instantly decays,it should theoretically emit all the know particles.Once this is observed empirically, we might have a solution.

Well there's something I never thought about.
If light is electromagnetic radiation (which it is), and all electromagnetic radiation travels at the same speed (namely, the speed of light, which it does), how is it that the other forms of radiation can escape, while visible light is trapped? Other than wavelength, intensity, and the other well-known inconsequential differences, I know of no other difference between visible light and the other wavelengths of light. So how in the heck does it escape from a point of infinite mass?

The answer is it doesn't, not from the black hole anyway. It is emmited from just outside the event horizon. One half of a particle anti-particle pair will get absorbed into the black hole, allowing the other to escape and be emitted as radiation.

Okay, for one thing, it is absolutely certain that they exist, if by chance, it is proven otherwise, then our concept of the universe will undergo a drastic change. You are right, there is no DIRECT observational spoof that black holes exist, but imagine an occupied hammock. You may not be able to see the person clearly, but by the shape of the hammock, one can always tell there is a guy lazing around in there. Infact, one can tell weather the person is fat, thin, short, tall, male or female. One can also tell if it is a bunch of stuff dumped there. Ditto with black holes. By the effect of the space around it, and the 'wobble' of nearby stars and planets, we have predicted the presance of high mass objects which are called black holes. For further information, on how one black hole in our milky way can be detected, go here:
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/solarsystem/black_hole_991215.html

Would this be hawkins radiation? the negative antimatter particle gets drawn into the black hole whilst the posetive matter particle is expelled in the form of radiation?