Eddington Limit

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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?

[greg1917]

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

[blike]

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?

[fafalone]

Matter does fall into a black hole.

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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.

[blike]

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

[superchump]

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.

[Raider]

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.

[Radical Edward]

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.