Researchers from the Swiss Higher Technical School of Zurich and the University of Miami believe that they were able to find signs of the existence of black holes not only in outer space, but also on earth - in the Southern Ocean. Scientists are convinced that giant funnels that cannot be seen exist in reality and even have the ability to exist for about a year, according to their report, published on the website of the journal Fluid Mechanics.
The eddies were most pronounced in the South Atlantic Ocean. Based on satellite images, scientists have concluded that they suck water from the ocean in the same way that black holes in space absorb light. As it turned out, these funnels are so densely surrounded by constantly moving streams of water that everything that gets into them - debris, oil, living things and even water - disappears forever.
By studying this phenomenon, scientists mathematically isolated the water-carrying vortices from a sequence of satellite observations. Thus, they defined the boundaries of rotation, which, as it turned out, are located inside the whirlpool. This process has always caused difficulties, since the whirlpools are too rapid and move in a chaotic manner. As a result, scientists discovered that the vortex in the ocean has its own "photon sphere" or "photon circle" in accordance with the terminology of Einstein's theory of relativity, like black holes. In space, a ray of light at a critical distance ceases to twist into a black hole. Instead, it flexes and returns to its original position, forming a circular orbit. There is a similar sphere around the whirlpool in the ocean - in it, fluid particles move in a closed loop without the possibility of flowing out of this circle, like light in a black hole. Thus, vortices in the ocean are mathematically equivalent to black holes.
Experts hope that the results they have obtained will help resolve a number of concerns, including the effect of eddies on the temperature in the World Ocean, as well as the cause of its pollution. The researchers hypothesize that eddies, which increase the circulation of warm and salty Atlantic water to the north, have a dampening effect. They are most likely to mitigate the negative effects of melting sea ice in the face of global warming. However, until recently, scientists could not determine how strong this influence is in quantitative terms, since there was no exact data on the boundaries of the eddies. After the publication of this scientific study, professor of oceanology, also from Miami, Josephine Olaskoaga, tested the mathematical method of Haller and Beron-Vera and unexpectedly discovered a similar vortex in the Gulf of Mexico.notes Science 2.0. She is now using the information she has gathered to assess the possible direction of water transport in the event of future oil spills into the bay.