The virgin & the bad boy (Gravity)

Chapter 27/The long tail of Gravity

I had sent Kentro to take Binks home while Binks could still remember this name and with Io we to take on the 40 minute trip from America to London. Soon we were on London's streets it was foggy. Parts of London had been bought up by Disney and they released fog in the evening to make it 'more authentic' for the tourists.  We met Casey and then gone to The Royal Society. We were near the new Queen Zoey's palace, she had just taken over from her dad king George who had died recently. Near the palace the Disney fog was clear as a mark of respect. It was down the street from Trafalgar square also not the one in Spain if you're looking on the hyper loop map I'm starting to think this was some deliberate joke by the English to confuse world traveler. The Royal Societ sat  nestled on the edge of the park surrounding Zoey's palace. 

Dr Sheep had given a talk about the work of Io's parents the Schwerkrafts and their research - super massive black holes. They wanted to build a gravitational telescope the size of the solar system to detect tiny gravitational waves. The idea was to pick up gravitational waves and pick up signals from within a blackhole. He also told us a bit about what had been found out from the flight recorder.  They had gone out to the edge of the solar system on what was to be a year mission to set up some super sensitive gravity detectors. Not being hardened space explorers, they had suffered from a number of set backs. Solar storms, then they conceived I/O. They had managed to set up three detectors but then disaster struck. The engine had blown and they had faced a long trip back home. As far as I could tell later some disease had struck when I/O was two or three killing her parents and the other members of the crew. IO had helped load her parents bodies into pods and eject them into space. This act was enough to nudge the disabled ship on a 15 year energy elliptic to earth saving her life. On the fringes of the scientific establishment the Schwerkrafts' data had been coming in and it had changed our understanding of the inside of blackholes. They had taken a physical and research risk and advanced the solar systems knowledge of gravity in a black hole massively.

 At the end of the talk  Dr Sheep had introduced himself to us recognising Io from her celebrity profile. We had decided to keep talking over coffee. The Royal Society was the oldest scientific institution in the world and so the solar system. Yet even after 300 years of scientific hyper advancement they couldn't brew a decent cup of coffee, science 0 culinary arts 1. Fortunately for a post presentation coffee Casey knew a place near by.  So we sat in the cafe in a near by modern art gallery called the ICA after Dr sheep's talk.

"So I was wondering where do these super massive black holes come from?" I asked.

"Well large stars who use up all their fuel" said the Doctor.

"So your advice is don't stand near Harry Styles when he's run out of cocaine " I said.

"Cocaine?" said Io.

I smiled at Io "pop star musician fuel - I'm lying"

"The larger the originally star the bigger the black hole, but there are limits. The Super massive black holes like the ones Io's parents studied form when a black hole suck stuff in. The bigger a black hole gets, the stronger the gravity, and the more it pulls in " said Dr Sheep.

"But hang on the more that falls in the bigger it gets" I said.

"And the more that falls in the bigger it gets." Dr Sheep started it's a feedback effect.  Yeh it's called Gravitational growth or autocatalysis. It's also called the Matthew effect or the rich get richer."

"The Mathew effect?" said Casey who seemed to be enjoying is trip out of his comfort zone.

"If I may Madam" said Kentro "For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken even that which he hath.— Matthew 25:29, King James Version."