00:04When so much of anything accretes into a small place in space, it may all eventually collapse
00:08in on itself, creating cosmic enigmas we know as black holes. According to an aged theory from this
00:14guy, the equation E equals mc squared outlines a relationship between mass and energy, such that
00:20enough of anything, even light, should be able to collect and turn into a black hole. However,
00:25now experts say that a black hole made from light might not actually be possible. One of these types
00:29of theoretical black holes is a tiny proton-sized one commonly called ball lightning. They were
00:34thought to be able to occur within the beams of high-powered lasers, but now new research
00:38posits that's just not the case. The appearance of ball lightning is prevented by what's called
00:43the Schwinger effect, or where matter can be created in that strong electrical field. With
00:47the researchers writing, our analysis strongly suggests that the formation of black holes solely
00:52from electromagnetic radiation is impossible, either by concentrating light in a hypothetical
00:57laboratory setting, or in naturally occurring astrophysical phenomena. They say that their
01:02math proves that it's at least impossible on a scale from around the size of Jupiter,
01:05all the way down to one that is tinier than a proton. Still, they admit that in the strange
01:09conditions of the early universe, it may have once been possible.
