Question

Suppose black holes radiate their mass away, and the lifetime of a black hole created by a supernova is about 10^67 years. How does this lifetime compare with the accepted age of the universe? Is it surprising that we do not observe the predicted characteristic radiation?

a) Comparable to the age of the universe; not surprising
b) Much shorter than the age of the universe; surprising
c) Much longer than the age of the universe; not surprising
d) Comparable to the age of the universe; surprising

Answer 1

The lifetime of a black hole is much longer than the age of the universe, so it is not surprising that we do not observe the predicted characteristic radiation.

Step-by-step explanation:

The lifetime of a black hole created by a supernova is about 10^67 years. This lifetime is much longer than the accepted age of the universe, which is approximately 14 billion years. Therefore, it is not surprising that we do not observe the predicted characteristic radiation from black holes.