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A classic instalment ofStar Treksaw the USS Enterprise encounter a inscrutable phenomenon call a " Dark Star , " but it ’s actually a very intimate space phenomenon . One ofStar Trek ’s most famous clip traveling episodes , " Tomorrow Is Yesterday , " saw the USS Enterprise stranded in the sixties . This was because of an encounter with a orphic phenomenon called a black sensation , described as an insensible stellar physical object which exert a tremendous gravitative force play . Modern viewers understandably assume the opprobrious star is fictional , but in realism it ’s a very familiar force-out .
The opprobrious adept key out in " Tomorrow Is Yesterday " is actually a black hole . Albert Einstein first predicted the existence of these back in 1916 , as part of his General Theory of Relativity . They remained purely theoretic for decades , and were referred to by a number of different names - including " black star topology , " which was a somewhat mutual one . In 1967 , the physicist John Wheeler ( 1911 - 2008 ) strike the terminus " black yap , " and it quickly caught on . Not quickly enough to twist up in " Tomorrow Is Yesterday , " though , which aired that same twelvemonth .
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Star Trek’s Black Star Was Scientifically Accurate - For Its Time
Most looker focalize on the pseudoscience ofStar Trek , from dilithiumto transporter . It ’s well-situated to forget , though , that many aspects ofStar Trek ’s scientific discipline are based on real - world principles . The trouble , though , is thatStar Trekhas been around for so long that the science has alter - because science is not electrostatic , but rather reflects a unvarying process of breakthrough . black-market holes are no longer theoretical , because they have been observed due to their interaction with surrounding stellar material . The gas molecules in a black hole ’s accumulation record heat up as they purl around it , releasing Adam - ray of light that can indeed be detect . But nobody had come up with that idea back in 1967 , which is why the so - called " dark genius " in " Tomorrow Is Yesterday " is say to be impossible to spot .
Star Trek Isn’t The Only Science-Fiction To Link Black Holes To Time Travel
Many science - fabrication film and goggle box shows link black hole to time travel . InDoctor Who , for exercise , the Time Lordsgained mastery of time and space when they manage to restrain the nucleus of an by artificial means - create black kettle of fish , naming this the " Eye of Harmony . " The Doctor was pull to find substitute way to power his TARDIS after Gallifrey ’s end . Meanwhile , inStargate SG-1interaction between a black hole and an artificially - create wormhole has the potential to induce prison term locomotion as well . This is all theoretically possible , although physicists take issue about the precise mechanics .
Star Trekhas used black fix many clip since " Tomorrow Is Yesterday . " One of the most interesting is in an episode ofStar Trek : The Next Generationcalled " Timescape , " in which the USS Enterprise run into a race of aliens who use the gravitational attraction well of black mess as nests for their young . Captain Janeway and the USS Voyagerhad their own close confrontation with a black fix in the episode " Parallax , " in which they meet temporal distortions . Star Trekclearly remains fascinated by the estimation time travel and black holes are intimately connected .
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