Scientists Are Mapping the Bizarre, Chaotic Spacetime Inside Black Holes
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Summary
The very center of a black hole, known as a singularity, is a point of infinite density, where all of space, time, and gravity break down.
Understanding singularities has been a foundational goal for theoretical physicists, as it may help reconcile the theories of general relativity and quantum mechanics.
In the 1960s, physicists realized that singularities might be surrounded by a sea of chaotic, churning spacetime, with stretching and squashing in all directions.
named this the Mixmaster universe, after a popular kitchen appliance of the time.
Later, the development of holographic duality led to new insights into the extreme physics of black holes, reproducing the Mixmaster picture.
Modern numerical simulations have begun to confirm these earlier intuitions.
Recently, scientists have been trying to use these insights to understand more about quantum gravity.