Expert: James Gort - 1/9/2009

Question
i am 17 years old and i was wondering is it possible that when a star dies and produces a black hole. can it be that the black hole is actually a giant deposit of tritium or some other radioactive isotope from the nuclear reactions on of the stars during nuclear fusion. I'm only wondering if it could be that the tritium pulsates its beta waves in order to follow other beta/alpha waves released from the left overs by the formation of planets and stars to gain enough energy and helium to spark up a new star or planet?

Answer
Hello Joe,

We have a pretty good idea of how elements burn in a star's interior, starting mainly with a sphere of hydrogen gas, and then, depending on the mass of the initial gas, fusing into other elements and releasing energy.  Tritium will have burned off in most stars before they die, and certainly before they explode and produce a black hole.  Only the most massive stars (greater than 20-30 times the mass of the sun) may explode in a supernova and may then collapse into a black hole.

The black hole may initially have contained tritium (but mostly heavier elements), but once it collapses, there are no more atoms.  The atoms first disassociate into their constituent parts (quarks and gluons) - these would form the core of a neutron star.  A black hole is formed when further collapse occurs and all its matter forms a point (singularity) - or some sort of quantum bubble (no one is sure!).  But very little escapes from a black hole - certainly not enough to form the building blacks of planets (there has to be enough gas and dust for a planet to form from its own gravity).

At 17, keep asking those great questions and wondering about the universe.  No one has all the answers, but maybe someday you'll be able to help provide some of those answers.

Prof. James Gort