Life and Times... Blah Blah: Space: Who Knew, #19

Spaghettification

Italian heritage certainly has its perks. Among them, love of pasta is perhaps my favorite. In fact, Isabella enjoys saying "Mosticolli and Tortellini" just about as much as she likes eating them. Makes a dad damn proud.

While Spaghettification sounds rather tantalizing, in fact, I can assure you it certainly is not. Especially because the sauce in this case, isn't marinara. Okay- okay rather bad visual there, I apologize. From the Wiki article, Spaghettification is defined as:

"The stretching of objects into long thin shapes (rather like spaghetti) in a very strong gravitational field, and is caused by extreme tidal forces. In the most extreme cases, near black holes, the stretching is so powerful that no object can withstand it, no matter how strong its components are."

...later in the article:

"Black holes have so much mass concentrated into a very small radius that the gravitational force near them is enormous. Since a black hole has no solid surface, as an object approaches, the distances between the black hole and the nearest and farthest edges of the object are significantly different, in percentage terms. In other words, the total distance from the black hole to the nearest part of the object becomes comparable to the dimensions of the object itself. For this reason, the gradient of the gravitional field across the object is very large. Thus, the difference in gravitational pull between the nearest and furthest parts of the falling object is sufficient to cause spaghettification."

So I'm pretty sure getting stuck in a black hole would be rather unenjoyable. But don't fret, there is some hope at least! This article explains that all hope need not be lost, at least not for a brief moment in time before you tumble through the event horizon. As it turns out, the article explains how to maximize your survival time once inside a black hole, check it out:

"Due to the tremendous tidal forces, an unlucky victim will suffer spaghettification, where differences in gravity from your head to your feet stretch you out. But let's not worry about that for now. You're trying to maximize survival time.

Since you've got a spaceship capable of zipping around from star to star, you've got a powerful engine, capable of affecting your rate of descent. Point down towards the singularity and you'll fall faster, point away and you'll fall more slowly. Keep in mind that you're inside a black hole, flying a spaceship capable of traveling near the speed of light, so Einstein's theories of relativity come into play.

And it's how you use your acceleration that defines how much personal time you'll have left.

In a moment of panic, you may point your rocket outwards and fire it at full thrust, keeping the engine running until you arrive at the central singularity. However, Lewis and Kwan have demonstrated that in the convoluted space-time within the event horizon, such a strategy actually hastens your demise, and you'll actually end up experiencing less time overall. So, what are you to do? Lewis and Kwan have the solution, identifying an acceleration "sweet-spot" that gives you the maximal survival time. All you have to do, once across the event horizon, is fire your rocket for a fixed amount of time, and then turn it off and enjoy the rest of the fall."