Comments on: black holes in star trek

By: chaim

chaim — Tue, 26 May 2009 04:11:49 +0000

yeah the whole red matter thing was a poorly conceived exercise. but st stopped doing anything remotely approaching fact-checking/scientific consulting years ago. i could probably come up with a dozen examples off the top of my head…

By: Ari

Ari — Tue, 19 May 2009 16:06:38 +0000

In “Physics of star trek”, someone who knows far more about physics than I ever will (in that he’s a physics professor) already went through all the ST basics – transporters, inertial dampers, warp drive, etc. Some of the things are impossible, but a surprisingly high number are theoretically possible, even if they are very unlikely, difficult, or have side effects that are simply ignored.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Sun, 17 May 2009 22:25:30 +0000

Isn’t it more appropriate to blame the writers of the movie for getting the physics incorrect? And if we’re going to attack the physics of this movie, why not go after the entire series (faster-than-light travel, teleportation, etc.)?

By: Ari

Ari — Wed, 13 May 2009 18:56:05 +0000

One more thing I forgot – remember that a black hole is still normal mass, it’s just incredibly dense. Assuming our magical supernova had enough force, there’s no reason it couldn’t push the black hole (sort of like the waves on the beach can push the rock farther up the shore). The black hole would then be heading towards Romulus along with the explosion – two catastrophes for the price of one!

By: Ari

Ari — Wed, 13 May 2009 18:47:44 +0000

Except that’s not how the black hole was being used, and it wasn’t the blast wave they were trying to stop.

Every supernova ever known to man has caused a massive explosion localized to that star system, which is then visible from afar, but causes no harm outside its own star system. this was some sort of “special” supernova which kept growing and growing until the supernova itself actually consumed matter beyond its own star system, eventually including Romulus. (They never explained how – must be magic).

The point of the red matter was not to use it to shield anything (which probably wouldn’t work in the face of the magical supernova that consumes everything anyway, but who really knows), it was being inserted into the center of the supernova, with the goal of collapsing it from the inside. (Apparently JJ Abrams thinks black holes only work if they start inside of an object). That was the whole point of the funny looking ship Spock was on. (It was designed by LaForge to be super strong and could theoretically stand up to severe stresses.)

By: David

David — Wed, 13 May 2009 17:56:08 +0000

Regarding #4, a black hole could in fact stop a blast wave of a supernova, much in the way that a rock can stop a wave on shore: there would be a teardrop-shapped “lee” behind the hole. However, then you’d have to contend with the presence of a local black hole, which is certainly a greater long-term threat than the immediate supernova threat.

Romulus was clearly doomed – perhaps Ambassador Spock’s approach was designed to give it time to be evacuated?

By: David

David — Wed, 13 May 2009 17:56:08 +0000

Romulus was clearly doomed – perhaps Ambassador Spock’s approach was designed to give it time to be evacuated?