Is there proof that black holes really exist?

[edguy99]

Intriguing and informative story on gravity wave detection. Are gravastars an alternative to black holes? Is it possible the there are NO black holes? The collapse of mass into a ball of energy that presses out and stabilizes the incoming mass is a thought provoking alternative to the common held view about black holes.

http://motherboard.vice.com/read/did-ligos-gravitational-waves-really-come-from-merging-black-holes

 

[Chronos]

There are a number of observations that confine an astronomical amount of mass to a minisule volume of space. It does not require a super computer to calculate the escape velocity at the border of these regions is the speed of light. That is pretty powerful evidence, but, not quite proof. Then again, science is not in the business of proof. Scientists are generally content to settle for ruling out reasonable alternatives.

 

[edguy99]

A search of the internet suggests that there are reasonable alternatives have not been ruled out in the case of black holes, i.e.. http://www.nature.com/news/2005/050328/full/news050328-8.html

The Gravastar would be slightly larger then a black hole but does not appear to be ruled out in anything I could find. The idea that the centre of a black hole is a massive ball of dark energy seems a much more sensible explanation rather then going into explanations that seem to defy common sense. Since dark energy by its very nature is repulsive, rather then attractive like normal mass, means you don't have to deal with force that grows unbounded towards the supposed singularity at the centre of a black hole.