Could aliens be living on planets deep within black holes? - 12th Apr 2011

• Could aliens be living on planets deep within black holes?

At the centre of some black holes is 'an area where space and time exists'

Colonies of aliens living on planets within black holes may not be as far-fetched as it sounds.

Some black holes have a complex internal structure that allows photons, particles and planets to orbit a central singularity, according to one scientist.

A singularity is the region in a black hole when space and time become infinite.

However, Professor Vyacheslav Dokuchaev claims that at the centre of certain black holes, and under the right conditions, is an area where the fabric of space and time exists once more.

If a charged and rotating black hole is large enough, he said, it can weaken the tidal forces that are beyond the event horizon - the point where nothing, not even light, can escape a black hole's gravity.

Scientists have long known that photons can survive in stable periodic orbits inside such charged black holes.

However Professor Dokuchaev said that a black hole's inner Cauchy horizon - the area where dimensions switch back again - can also accommodate particles and even planets.

These manage to exist without ever getting sucked all the way into the black hole and would derive light and heat from the orbiting protons and from the energy of the central singularity, he said. Read More