Latest news with #BlackHole
WIRED
3 days ago
- Science
- WIRED
The Hunt for a Fundamental Theory of Quantum Gravity
Jul 20, 2025 7:00 AM Black hole and Big Bang singularities break our best theory of gravity. A trilogy of theorems hints that physicists must go to the ends of space and time to find a fix. ILLUSTRATION: MARK BELAN FOR QUANTA MAGAZINE The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine . Two blind spots torture physicists: the birth of the universe and the center of a black hole. The former may feel like a moment in time and the latter a point in space, but in both cases the normally interwoven threads of space and time seem to stop short. These mysterious points are known as singularities. Singularities are predictions of Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity. According to this theory, clumps of matter or energy curve the space-time fabric toward themselves, and this curvature induces the force of gravity. Pack enough stuff into a small enough spot, and Einstein's equations seem to predict that space-time will curve infinitely steeply there, such that gravity grows infinitely strong. Most physicists don't believe, however, that Einstein's theory says much about what really happens at these points. Rather, singularities are widely seen as 'mathematical artifacts,' as Hong Liu, a physicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, put it, not objects that 'occur in any physical universe.' They are where general relativity malfunctions. The singularities are expected to vanish in a more fundamental theory of gravity that Einstein's space-time picture merely approximates—a theory of quantum gravity. But as physicists take steps toward that truer and more complete theory by merging general relativity and quantum physics, singularities are proving hard to erase. The British mathematical physicist Roger Penrose won the Nobel Prize in Physics for proving in the 1960s that singularities would inevitably occur in an empty universe made up entirely of space-time. More recent research has extended this insight into more realistic circumstances. One paper established that a universe with quantum particles would also feature singularities, although it only considered the case where the particles don't bend the space-time fabric at all. Then, earlier this year, a physicist proved that these blemishes exist even in theoretical universes where quantum particles do slightly nudge space-time itself—that is, universes quite a bit like our own. This trilogy of proofs challenges physicists to confront the possibility that singularities may be more than mere mathematical mirages. They hint that our universe may in fact contain points where space-time frays so much that it becomes unrecognizable. No object can pass, and clocks tick to a halt. The singularity theorems invite researchers to grapple with the nature of these points and pursue a more fundamental theory that can clarify what might continue if time truly stops. Space-Time's Fatal Flaws Karl Schwarzschild first discovered an arrangement of space-time with a singularity in 1916, just months after Einstein published general relativity. The bizarre features of the 'Schwarzschild solution' took years for physicists to understand. Space-time assumes a shape analogous to a whirlpool with walls that swirl more and more steeply as you go farther in; at the bottom, the curvature of space-time is infinite. The vortex is inescapable; it has a spherical boundary that traps anything falling inside, even light rays. It took decades for physicists to accept that these inconceivable objects, eventually dubbed black holes, might actually exist. The British mathematical physicist Roger Penrose proved that given two simple assumptions, space-time must end at points called singularities. COURTESY OF PUBLIC DOMAIN J. Robert Oppenheimer and Hartland Snyder calculated in 1939 that if a perfectly spherical star gravitationally collapses to a point, its matter will become so dense that it will stretch space-time into a singularity. But real stars bubble and churn, especially while imploding, so physicists wondered whether their nonspherical shapes would stop them from forming singularities. Penrose eliminated the need for geometric perfection in 1965. His landmark proof relied on two assumptions. First, you need a 'trapped surface' inside of which light can never escape. If you cover this surface in light bulbs and switch them on, their light rays will fall inward faster than they can travel outward. Crucially, this shell of light will shrink regardless of whether it started out as a perfect sphere, a dimpled golf ball, or something more misshapen. Second, space-time should always curve in such a way that light rays bend toward each other but never diverge. In short, gravity should be attractive, which is the case so long as energy is never negative. With these two stipulations, Penrose proved the mortality of at least one of the trapped light rays. Its otherwise eternal journey through space and time must terminate in a singularity, a point where the space-time fabric ceases to exist, where there is no future for the light ray to travel into. This was a new definition of a singularity, distinct from the infinite curvature of the Schwarzschild solution. Its generality enabled Penrose to prove in three scant pages of math that, under his two assumptions, singularities will inevitably form. Caption: A hand-drawn figure in Penrose's 1965 paper proving the singularity theorem shows the collapse of space-time to form a singularity. The paper has been called 'the most important paper in general relativity' since Einstein's. ILLUSTRATION: Roger Penrose, Physical Review Letters, American Physical Society 'Penrose's paper was probably the most important paper in general relativity ever written, other than Einstein's original paper,' said Geoff Penington, a physicist at the University of California, Berkeley. Stephen Hawking soon extended Penrose's argument to the early universe, proving that a cosmos described by general relativity must have sprung from a singular point during the Big Bang. This cosmological singularity resembles a black hole in that, if you imagine rewinding the history of the universe, light rays will run into a wall at the beginning of time. Over the years, physicists have accumulated heaps of evidence that black holes exist, and that the universe began with an event that looks very much like a Big Bang. But do these phenomena truly represent space-time singularities? Many physicists find the actual existence of such points unthinkable. When you try to calculate the fate of a particle approaching the singularity, general relativity glitches and gives impossible, infinite answers. 'The singularity means a lack of predictability,' Liu said. 'Your theory just breaks down.' But the particle in the real world must have a fate of some sort. So a more universal theory that can predict that fate—very likely a quantum theory—must take over. General relativity is a classical theory, meaning that space-time takes on one, and only one, shape at every moment. In contrast, matter is quantum mechanical, meaning it can have multiple possible states at once—a feature known as superposition. Since space-time reacts to the matter in it, theorists expect that any matter particles in a superposition of occupying two different locations should force space-time into a superposition of two distortions. That is, space-time and gravity should also follow quantum rules. But physicists haven't yet worked out what those rules are. Into the Onion Theorists approach their quest for a quantum theory of gravity the way they might peel an onion: layer by layer. Each layer represents a theory of a universe that imperfectly approximates the real one. The deeper you go, the more of the interplay between quantum matter and space-time you can capture. The German physicist-soldier Karl Schwarzschild calculated the shape that space-time takes around a massive point. Years later, physicists realized that this geometry contains a singularity. COURTESY OF PUBLIC DOMAIN Penrose worked in the outermost layer of the onion. He used the general theory of relativity and ignored quantumness entirely. In effect, he proved that the space-time fabric has singularities when it is completely devoid of any quantum matter. Physicists aspire to someday reach the onion's core. In it, they'll find a theory describing both space-time and matter in all their quantum glory. This theory would have no blind spots—all calculations should yield meaningful results. But what about the middle layers? Could physicists resolve Penrose's singularities by moving to something a little more quantum, and therefore a little more realistic? 'It was the obvious speculation, that somehow quantum effects should fix the singularity,' Penington said. They first tried to do so in the late 2000s. The assumption that had confined Penrose's proof to the outermost layer was that energy is never negative. That's true in everyday, classical situations, but not in quantum mechanics. Energy goes negative, at least momentarily, in quantum phenomena such as the Casimir effect, where (experiments show) two metal plates attract each other in a vacuum. And negative energies play a role in the way black holes are thought to radiate particles, eventually 'evaporating' entirely. All the deeper, quantum layers of the onion would feature this exotic energetic behavior. The physicist who peeled the top layer was Aron Wall, then based at the University of Maryland and now at the University of Cambridge. To cut into the quantum realm and abandon Penrose's energy assumption, Wall latched on to a theoretical discovery made in the 1970s by Jacob Bekenstein. Bekenstein knew that for any given region of space, the contents of the region grow more mixed up as time goes on. In other words, entropy, a measure of this mixing, tends to increase, a rule known as the second law of thermodynamics. While considering a region that contains a black hole, the physicist realized that the entropy comes from two sources. There's the standard source—the number of ways that quantum particles in the space around the black hole could be arranged. But the black hole has entropy too, and the amount depends on the black hole's surface area. So the total entropy of the region is a sum: the surface area of the black hole plus the entropy of nearby quantum stuff. This observation became known as the 'generalized' second law. Wall 'made it his mission to understand the generalized second law,' said Raphael Bousso, a physicist at Berkeley. 'He was thinking about it in much clearer and much better ways than everybody else on the planet.' Reaching the quantum layers of the onion would mean accommodating negative energy and the presence of quantum particles. To do so, Wall reasoned that he could take any surface area in general relativity and add to it the entropy of those particles, as the generalized second law suggested. Penrose's proof of his singularity theorem had involved the trapped surface. So Wall upgraded it to a 'quantum trapped surface.' And when he reworked Penrose's singularity theorem in this way, it held. Singularities form even in the presence of quantum particles. Wall published his findings in 2010. In 2010, Aron Wall, now at the University of Cambridge, revamped Penrose's proof to show that singularities exist in a world where space-time has no quantum properties but is filled with particles that do. PHOTOGRAPH: NICOLE WALL 'Aron's paper was a seminal breakthrough in combining quantum mechanics and gravity in a more precise way,' Penington said. Having peeled back the classical outer layer of the onion, where energy is always positive, Wall reached a lightly quantum layer—a context physicists call semiclassical. In a semiclassical world, space-time guides the journeys of quantum particles, but it cannot react to their presence. A semiclassical black hole will radiate particles, for instance, since that's a consequence of how particles experience a space-time warped into a black hole shape. But the space-time—the black hole itself—will never actually shrink in size even as the radiation leaks energy into the void for all eternity. That's almost, but not exactly, what happens in the real universe. You could watch a black hole radiate particles for a century without seeing it shrink a single nanometer. But if you could watch for longer—many trillions upon trillions of years—you would see the black hole waste away to nothing. The next onion layer beckoned. Dialing Up the Quantumness Bousso recently revisited Wall's proof and found that he could cut a little deeper. What about the world where black holes shrink as they radiate? In this scenario, the space-time fabric can react to quantum particles. Using more refined mathematical machinery developed by Wall and others since 2010, Bousso found that, despite the intensified quantumness of his scenario, singularities continue to exist. He posted his paper, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, in January. The world of Bousso's new theorem still departs from our universe in notable ways. For mathematical convenience, he assumed that there's an unlimited variety of particles—an unrealistic assumption that makes some physicists wonder whether this third layer matches reality (with its 17 or so known particles) any better than the second layer does. 'We don't have an infinite number of quantum fields,' said Edgar Shaghoulian, a physicist at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Still, for some experts, Bousso's work delivers a satisfying denouement to the Penrose and Wall singularity story, despite its unrealistic abundance of particles. It establishes that singularities can't be avoided, even in space-times with mild reactions to quantum matter. 'Just by adding small quantum corrections, you can't prevent the singularity,' Penington said. Wall and Bousso's work 'answers that pretty definitively.' The Real Singularity But Bousso's theorem still doesn't guarantee that singularities must form in our universe. Some physicists hold out hope that the dead ends do somehow go away. What seems like a singularity could actually connect to somewhere else. In the case of a black hole, perhaps those light rays end up in another universe. And a lack of a Big Bang singularity might imply that our universe began with a 'Big Bounce.' The idea is that a previous universe, as it collapsed under the pull of gravity, somehow dodged the formation of a singularity and instead bounced into a period of expansion. Physicists who are developing bounce theories often work in the second layer of the onion, using semiclassical physics that exploits negative-energy quantum effects to get around the singularity required by the Penrose and Hawking theorems. In light of the newer theorems, they will now need to swallow the uncomfortable truth that their theories violate the generalized second law as well. One physicist pursuing bounces, Surjeet Rajendran of Johns Hopkins University, says he is undaunted. He points out that not even the generalized second law is gospel truth. Rejecting it would make singularities avoidable and continuations of space-time possible. Singularity skeptics can also appeal to the theory at the core of the onion, where space-time behaves in truly quantum ways, such as taking on superpositions. There, nothing can be taken for granted. It becomes hard to define the concept of area, for instance, so it's not clear what form the second law should take, and therefore the new theorems won't hold. Bousso and like-minded physicists, however, suspect that a highly quantum arena with no notion of area is tantamount to a dead-end for a light ray, and therefore that something Penrose would recognize as a singularity should persist in the core theory and in our universe. The beginning of the cosmos and the hearts of black holes would truly mark edges of the map where clocks can't tick and space stops. 'Inside of black holes, I am positive there is some notion of singularity,' said Netta Engelhardt, a physicist at MIT who has worked with Wall. In that case, the still-unknown fundamental theory of quantum gravity would not kill singularities but demystify them. This truer theory would allow physicists to ask questions and calculate meaningful answers, but the language of those questions and answers would change dramatically. Space-time quantities like position, curvature and duration might be useless for describing a singularity. There, where time ends, other quantities or concepts might have to take their place. 'If you had to make me guess,' Penington said, 'whatever quantum state describes the singularity itself does not have a notion of time.' Original story reprinted with permission from Quanta Magazine, an editorially independent publication of the Simons Foundation whose mission is to enhance public understanding of science by covering research developments and trends in mathematics and the physical and life sciences.
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
If you're in the private sector, get ready to take a massive hit
It should have been called the Spending More Review. Or even better, the Spending More Without Saying Where the Money is Going to Come From Review. You have to wonder how much longer this Government can go on running against Liz Truss. Or against those other favourite panto villains: Austerity and the £22 Billion Black Hole. And how much more mileage can there be in swearing fealty to the interests of 'working people' when you clearly mean 'people who work in the public sector' – because you are busy putting the other kind, the ones who work in the private entrepreneurial sector, out of business. So it was a billion here and a billion there: lots and lots of money to be spent on what are obviously thought to be the most vote-winning recipients, most of whom happen to reside in the Red Wall constituencies which Labour is terrified of losing to Reform. There was, of course, a large funding increase promised to the NHS without any demand for the kind of reforms that might actually see that money better spent. Even Gordon Brown, who hugely increased health spending, had demanded reform in exchange (although he never actually got it). But to fail even to mention such a condition seems insulting to the intelligence of voters who can see the inefficiencies and waste in the system with their own eyes. But the most depressing recurrent theme was a return to the sentimental pre-1980s idea of a working class that cannot imagine any life beyond its local industrial roots. The aspiration and social mobility which Blair's New Labour had been compelled to embrace is gone now. The commitment was to save 'local communities' of 'working people' by developing government-run projects: precisely the conditions that gave rise to the suffocating trade union power of the 1970s. (Ms Reeves explicitly stated her determination to give 'public service workers the pay rises they deserve.') This was a spending programme that a Government led by Jeremy Corbyn would have been proud of. But the biggest hole in all of this was any explanation of where this money would come from. There was a clear hint in her reiteration of the Government's commitment to pay for increased 'day-to-day' spending through current income rather than by taking on more debt. That means tax rises. But you knew that didn't you? And if your earnings come from the wealth-creating private sector, even though you may consider yourself at least as much of a 'working person' as those who are paid by the state, you had better be prepared to take a very substantial hit. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Yahoo
04-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Gov. Cox taps former Utah AG records counsel as new public records director
The Capitol in Salt Lake City is pictured on Thursday, April 10, 2025. (Photo by Spenser Heaps for Utah News Dispatch) Utah Gov. Spencer Cox has appointed a former Utah Attorney General's Office attorney to fill a new role that will be a key decision-maker over which government records do — and don't — become public. Cox picked Lonny Pehrson, who most recently worked as records counsel for the Utah Attorney General's Office, to be the first director of the state's newly created Government Records Office. His nomination will be subject to consent from the Utah Senate. 'We look forward to the Government Records Office streamlining the appeals process and helping Utahns get timely answers to their records requests,' Cox said in a prepared statement. 'Lonny Pehrson's legal expertise and commitment to good governance make him the right person to lead this important effort.' Pehrson said he's 'honored' for Cox's nomination 'and truly appreciate the trust and responsibility it entails.' Utah lawmakers look to dissolve, replace State Records Committee. Here's why that matters 'I look forward to establishing the Government Records Office which will better facilitate access to government records in accordance with the law,' Pehrson said in a prepared statement. Earlier this year, the Utah Legislature voted to approve SB277, which dissolved and replaced the 30-year-old, seven-member State Records Committee with a single decision-maker. At the time, the bill's sponsor, Senate Majority Assistant Whip Mike McKell, R-Spanish Fork, said the change is meant to address 'inefficiencies,' cut down on wait times for records decisions, and replace the State Records Committee with someone with more 'legal experience.' Critics, including media professionals, argued the move would consolidate too much power with one person and lead to less transparency. The Society of Professional Journalists awarded the Utah Legislature its annual Black Hole award for the passage SB277, along with another, HB69, which made it difficult for people who challenge the government over public records denials to recoup their attorney fees. Pehrson, in his new role, will now decide appeals to records requests that have been denied. He'll be responsible for adjudicating records appeals hearings and supervising the Government Records Ombudsman and staff. 'He will also serve as a resource to citizens and governmental entities regarding government records management, ensuring lawful access to records and information, and leading a team that conducts statewide training in records and information management,' a news release issued Monday by the Division of Archives and Records Service said. 'Disregard for transparency': Utah Legislature's public records laws earn it a 'Black Hole' award Pehrson, in his previous role as records counsel for then-Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes, argued against releasing Reyes' calendar in response to requests from local news outlets KSL and The Salt Lake Tribune. The State Records Committee ultimately sided with reporters, and in February a judge ruled that Reyes' work calendar should be released. The same day as the judge's ruling, however, the Utah Legislature passed a bill to allow elected officials and government employees the ability to keep their calendars — including work meetings — private moving forward. Reyes didn't seek reelection last year after concerns surfaced over his past relationship with the embattled anti-trafficking nonprofit Operation Underground Railroad and its founder, Tim Ballard. Earlier this year, a legislative audit of Reyes' administration concluded that 'insufficient transparency' resulted in 'a lack of accountability for the position of the attorney general.' State leaders, however, applaud Pehrson as an expert in Utah's public records law, the Government Records Access and Management Act (GRAMA). Kenneth Williams, director of the Utah Division of Archives and Records Service and state archivist, said in a statement that his department is 'thrilled' to welcome Pehrson. 'I have worked with Lonny for several years and know that his expertise in records law and dedication to public service will be invaluable as we continue to ensure appropriate and reliable access to government records for the people of Utah,' Williams said. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Time of India
29-05-2025
- Science
- Time of India
Black Holes explained: Unraveling the facts of space's cosmic mystery
Black holes are mysterious cosmic objects with gravity which are so strong that even light cannot escape. They form when massive stars collapse under their own gravity creating a dense point called a singularity, surrounded by an event horizon which is the point of no return. The concept of black holes was introduced in 1916 but physicists at the time doubted that such objects could truly exist. Though invisible, black holes can be detected by their effects on nearby matter such as pulling in stars or emitting X-rays. They range in size from stellar to supermassive black holes and are found at galaxy centers. Studying black holes helps in understanding gravity, space and time which offer clues about the fundamental laws that govern the universe. The black hole carries various facts and secrets which we are going to discover here. 5 incredible facts about Black Hole The closest Black Hole- Gaia BH1 Gaia BH1 is currently the nearest confirmed black hole to Earth which is located about 1,500 light-years away in the constellation named Ophiuchus. Unlike many black holes detected by their bright X-ray emissions from consuming nearby matter, Gaia BH1 is part of a binary system with a sun-like star but it doesn't actively pull in material, which makes it quiet and harder to spot. It was discovered using data from the European Space Agency's Gaia satellite which precisely measures star positions and motions. Scientists confirmed Gaia BH1's existence by detecting the shift in its companion star's motion caused by the black hole's gravitational pull. This discovery is important because it suggests many more quiet black holes that might be hiding nearby but are undetectable by traditional X-ray methods and offers new opportunities to study black holes in different environments. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Bolsas nos olhos? (Tente isso hoje à noite) Revista Saúde & Beleza Saiba Mais Undo The biggest known black hole - TON 618 TON 618 is the biggest known black hole which carries about 66 billion times the sun's mass. TON 618 is a supermassive black hole found within a distant quasar which is located billions of light-years from Earth. It's one of the most massive black holes ever discovered with a mass about 66 billion times that of our Sun. TON 618 was detected by observing the intense light emitted from the quasar which is a highly energetic region around the black hole where gas and dust fall in and heat up, producing powerful radiation. The quasar's brightness allowed scientists to estimate the black hole's mass through measurements of the gas motion near its event horizon. Studying TON 618 helps in understanding how such enormous black holes form and grow over cosmic time and sheds light on the early universe's conditions as quasars like TON 618 were more common billions of years ago. The Milky Way's central black hole - Sagittarius A* Sagittarius A* is a supermassive black hole situated about 26,000 light-years from Earth which is present right at the center of the Milky Way galaxy. It has a mass of approximately 4 million times that of the Sun. Despite its huge mass, Sagittarius A* is relatively quiet compared to the active black holes found in other galaxies which mean it doesn't currently consume large amounts of matter. Scientists have studied Sagittarius A* by tracking the orbits of stars moving around it, which helped confirm its presence and estimate its mass. This black hole plays a crucial role in the dynamics and evolution of our galaxy's core. Sagittarius A* is a key target for future imaging efforts to better understand these mysterious cosmic giants. Black holes are found in abundance across our galaxy Scientists believe that the Milky Way galaxy contains millions of black holes. These black holes form from the remains of massive stars that have ended their life cycles in supernova explosions. While only a few dozen black holes have been directly observed, many more are thought to exist but remain hidden because they don't emit light or X-rays. Most of these black holes are stellar black holes which are much smaller than supermassive ones like Sagittarius A* at the galaxy's center. They quietly roam space, sometimes in binary systems with other stars, occasionally pulling in material that can reveal their presence. Ongoing research and new methods like tracking the movements of stars or detecting gravitational waves are helping astronomers to uncover more of these hidden black holes, which play an important role in the galaxy's evolution. Black holes' cores can be nearly as cold as 'absolute zero' Black holes are often thought of as incredibly hot because of the energy and radiation around them, but at their very center, the temperature can be extremely low, approaching absolute zero (–273.15°C or –459.67°F). Absolute zero is the coldest possible temperature, where atomic motion nearly coldness arises because the singularity is a point of infinite density and gravity where the laws of physics as we know them break down. The intense gravitational pull traps everything but no heat or light escapes from within the event horizon. Interestingly, while the core is nearly frozen in temperature, the area just outside the event horizon can emit a faint glow called Hawking radiation which is caused by quantum effects near the black hole's the temperature inside black holes helps to explore how gravity and quantum mechanics interact under extreme conditions. How black holes are formed Black holes form when massive stars reach the end of their life cycle. During a star's life, it burns fuel through nuclear fusion, creating outward pressure that balances the inward pull of gravity. When the star runs out of fuel, this balance is lost and gravity causes the star to collapse. For very massive stars that are typically more than 20 times the mass of the Sun, this collapse is so intense that the core compresses into a single point called a singularity which is surrounded by an event horizon, forming a black hole. The outer layers of the star may explode in a supernova, scattering elements into space. In addition to stellar black holes, there are supermassive black holes that form over millions of years, possibly from the merging of smaller black holes or the collapse of massive gas clouds at the centers of galaxies. What happens inside a black hole Inside a black hole lies a region called the singularity where gravity is so intense that it crushes matter into an infinitely small and dense point. The laws of physics like general relativity and quantum mechanics, break down at this singularity which makes it one of the biggest mysteries in science. Surrounding the singularity is the event horizon, the boundary beyond which nothing, not even light can escape. Once something crosses this boundary, it is inevitably pulled toward the singularity. Inside the event horizon, space and time behave in strange ways. Time appears to slow down dramatically relative to an outside observer and the usual rules of cause and effect can become distorted. Because no information can escape from inside the event horizon, scientists cannot observe what truly happens inside a black hole directly. Instead, they use theoretical physics and indirect observations to understand these mysterious objects. Visual nature of black holes Black holes themselves are invisible because their gravity is so strong that not even light can escape which makes them appear completely black against the backdrop of space. However, we can see their presence indirectly. Around a black hole is often a glowing accretion disk which is a swirling ring of gas, dust and other matter that heats up and emits bright radiation as it spirals in. This disk can be incredibly luminous, outshining entire galaxies. Additionally, black holes can bend and distort light around them due to their intense gravity, creating a phenomenon called gravitational lensing. This warping of light can cause strange visual effects, like rings . In 2019, the Event Horizon Telescope captured the first-ever image of a black hole's shadow, showing a dark center surrounded by a bright ring of glowing matter, offering a glimpse into what black holes "look like" from a distance. Also read: Copper-legged blue frog from poison dart family discovered in the Amazon rainforest
Time of India
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Secretly yours, NVJ: A pseudonym that cloaked Narlikar's sci-fi writing debut
Pune: AP Deshpande, honorary secretary of Marathi Vidnyan Parishad , and a long-time associate of Jayant Narlikar , said that the first time the renowned astrophysicist wrote science fiction was in 1974. "Narlikar took inspiration from his PhD guide Fred Hoyle who was also a science fiction writer. The astrophysicist was president of Marathi Vidnyan Parishad in 1973 at Jalna in Marathwada. That year, he distributed prizes for our science fiction story-writing competition. It was here that the thought of writing occurred to him. Until then, Narlikar had never penned fiction." He decided to participate in the competition the next year. "It was the fourth year of the contest. He wrote the story as there were no Marathi typewriters at TIFR. He realised that someone would recognise his handwriting. So, he told his wife Mangala to copy it," Deshpande added. Narlikar chose not to submit the story under his name to avoid influencing the jury. Instead, he created the pseudonym Narayan Vinayak Jagtap (NVJ), reversing his JVN initials, Deshpande added. "The story won the first prize. Our panel comprised an expert with a science background and another in literature. After the results, he wrote to us revealing who Narayan Vinayak Jagtap was. The story — Krushna Vivar (Black Hole) — was published in his short story collection in 1978 by Mouj Prakashan. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like 2025 Top Trending local enterprise accounting software [Click Here] Esseps Learn More Undo He mentioned this episode in the preface," he said. Durga Bhagwat was president of Marathi Sahitya Sammelan in 1974 when she referred to Narlikar and his work. Well-known humorist Pu La Deshpande too acknowledged his contributions in 1975. "Marathi Vidnyan Parishad opened a new chapter in Marathi literature by introducing science fiction. What set Narlikar apart from other writers was his aim to explain science through storytelling which drew much criticism. Some argued that if literature had a specific 'intention' or agenda, it was reduced to second-grade writing. In his early stories, he included diagrams to illustrate scientific concepts. But over time, he evolved as the leading voice among science fiction writers in Marathi," Deshpande said.
