Scientists Are Mapping the Bizarre, Chaotic Spacetime Inside Black Holes

The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. At the beginning of time and the center of every black hole lies a point of infinite density called a singularity. To explore these enigmas, we take what we know about space, time, gravity, and quantum mechanics and apply it to a place where all of those things simply break down. There is, perhaps, nothing in the universe that challenges the imagination more. Physicists still believe that if they can come up with a coherent explanation for what actually happens in and around singularities, something revelatory will emerge, perhaps a new understanding of what space and time are made of. In the late 1960s, some physicists speculated that singularities might be surrounded by a region of churning chaos, where space and time haphazardly grow and shrink. Charles Misner of the University of Maryland called it a “Mixmaster universe,” after what was then a popular line of kitchen appliances. If an astronaut were to fall into a bl ... Read full article.