bapowell said:Theories (general, universal statements of physical law) must be falsified a la Popper, but particular facts like "99.9999% of the matter in the universe goes to making black holes" can certainly be verified for truth.
Chronos said:Stars convert mass into photons over their lifetimes. The hydrogen fusion process converts about 0.7% of the mass involved into photons in a typical [sun-like] star. The amount of mass available for fusion in such a star is about 0.1 solar masses, so we can conclude that about 0.07% of the total mass is converted to photons over the lifetime of a typical sun-like star. This, however, fails to account for mass-energy conversion in the infant universe, which produced the CMB photons. The baryon asymmetry of the infant universe is estimated at about 1 part in 10 billion. Since matter-antimatter energy conversion is virtually 100% efficient, the matter that survived to become stars was only a microscopic fraction of the initial mass budget of the universe. While black holes may recover 99.9999% of all matter that remains after mass-energy conversion processes have ended in the universe, I doubt they will recover 99.9999% of all photons emitted over the history of the universe.
The process of matter collapsing into a black hole is known as gravitational collapse. This occurs when a massive star runs out of fuel and can no longer support its own weight. The star's core collapses under the force of gravity, becoming denser and creating a singularity at its center. This singularity has infinite density and strong gravitational pull, creating a black hole.
The amount of matter needed to form a black hole is known as the Schwarzschild radius, which is calculated using the mass of the object. For a black hole to form, the object needs to have a mass at least three times that of our sun. This means that the Schwarzschild radius for a black hole is about 9 kilometers.
Yes, any type of matter can create a black hole as long as it has enough mass to exceed the Schwarzschild radius. This includes both normal matter, such as stars, and exotic matter, such as dark matter or antimatter.
Once matter enters a black hole, it is compressed to an infinite density and becomes part of the singularity at the center. This means that the matter can no longer be observed or detected from outside the black hole.
There is no known limit to how much matter can go into a black hole. As long as the object has enough mass to exceed the Schwarzschild radius, it can form a black hole. However, as the amount of matter increases, the black hole's gravitational pull becomes stronger, making it more difficult for additional matter to enter.