Relativity Lite

62 | Relativity Lite (a) (b) (c) Figure 11. (a) In our everyday world, space looks smooth. (b) But as we approach the Planck length, 10 −33 cm, space begins to appear to have random holes in it. (c) So motion through space entails leaps over voids of nonexistence. We do not yet have a coherent quantum theory of gravity, but hybrid quantum calcu- lations tell us that near r = 0 , for a newly collapsed star, our astronaut would actually be folded back and forth like a piece of taffy. * An astronaut who waits until the hole is many years old before taking the plunge will face “tidal forces surrounding the singularity . . . so tame and meek, according to [Werner] Israel’s, [Eric] Poisson’s, † and [Amos] Ori’s [1991] * Kip S. Thorne, From Black Holes to Time Warps: Einstein’s Outrageous Legacy (W. W. Norton, New York, 1994), p. 474. † W. Israel and E. Poisson, Phys. Rev. D 41 , 1796 (1990).