I just found out about this from the recent news article about black holes. Is this something that is hypothesized or is it considered a pretty solid notion? I thought photons could not escape black holes. If this were true, how could photons exert enough pressure in the opposite direction to keep matter from falling in?

Id say it was a solid notion because surely thats essentially what a black hole is , something from which photons cannot escape? im not saying thats the definition of a black hole but i was under the impression that was a fundemental part of the theory

Id say it was a solid notion because surely thats essentially what a black hole is , something from which photons cannot escape?

 

But if photons could not escape, how can they exert pressure in the opposite direction to keep matter from falling in?

Matter does fall into a black hole.

Originally posted by fafalone

Matter does fall into a black hole.

 

But at the "Eddington Limit", the luminosity is so great that the photons exert enough pressure to keep matter from falling in any faster.

I'm assuming by looking at what I attached that electrons transfer their momentum to photons?

I'm assuming this takes place before the event horizon. It's an equalibrium between the gravitational gradiant and the radiation squeezed out of matter trapped in the accretion disk.

Black holes don't hold *everything* within the event horizon or even the singularity for that matter. Uncertainity principle allows for stuff to escape and thus push other things back.

be careful when mentioning the uncertainty principle and black holes. As I have said before, General Relativity and Quantum mechanics do not mix, one, or both of them, needs some correction.