white hole
“Ladies and gentlemen,” Dr Adams said as the crew looked out the viewport. “We have officially just discovered a scientific impossibility.”
“If we discovered it, I’d say it isn’t impossible anymore.” Capt. Walters said. “But why don’t you enlighten us, doctor. Why is…that impossible.”
He pointed at the bright white sphere floating several hundred kilometers away. It looked like it was throwing out small chunks of stuff, and the energy coming out of it was beyond anything the ship could get a proper read of.
“Of course, captain. That, my dear colleagues, is a white hole.” The doctor heard one of the crew members snicker quietly, but chose to ignore it. “It is, or was, a purely theoretical celestial body that, as the name suggests, is the opposite of a black hole. Hm, to put it in very simple terms, if a black hole is suck, than this one is blow. Also, before anyone says anything else, I would like to remind everyone here that we’re all adults, and should act like it.”
Most of the crew turned to look at the man who they all knew was being indirectly addressed. The man, a security guard, looked like he was about to say something. Instead, he hung his head in shame.
“And what’s that mean for us?” Adams asked.
“It means we’re going to get all the readings we can, and go home as very famous people. It also means we should absolutely not get hit by anything coming out of the event horizon.”
“Why?”
“Because if my guess is correct, I’d say each of those objects has roughly the mass of a small star.”
The crew was silent for a moment. “Ah.” The captain said. “Right then. No trying to collect samples?”
“As much as it pains me to say, no. Not a chance. Even a thimbleful is probably heavier than this ship.”
“Okay, good to know. Helm, get us some more distance between us and the…” He looked over at the shamed security guard before continuing, “hole.” The guard wisely chose not to comment. “Anything else we need to know?”
“Well, you already have the readings of the energy it’s giving off. This could power an entire planet for years. Maybe even indefinitely. Since the other end of it is constantly absorbing more energy, it’s all coming out again here. Plus, with more study, we can learn far more about the universe than even I can dream about.” He paused and looked around. Only a few of the more academically minded crew members were interested. “But, since you probably don’t care about that, we can expect discoverer’s rights to anything involving the white hole. A minimum of one percent of the revenue of anything that comes from it.”
The rest of the crew brightened up at that. Even if one percent was not a large amount, with the energy it was giving off, all of the crew members could guess how big it would be once people figured out how to use it.
“Well then,” Capt. Adams said. “Let’s gather as much data as we can, and then head home. We’ve got history to make.”
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