Indeed, you probably missed the lectures on what a singularity is, and what its effects are on the surrounding space-time environment: We can observe time, both in a matter of perspective, and using scientific calculations to judge the effects of it on any subject. The space-bending phenomenon as part of general relativity has been observed and documented.
I suggest reading about relativity and quantum mechanics before making a blanket statement regarding how to observe time as a physical force and possible spacial dimension.
In the simplest terms, the singularity effect is a force of hypergravity; light is pulled into the absolute event horizon, and absorbed by the mass within. This alone leads me to believe that light must have some mass (else, why is it attracted to objects of relatively high mass), and when it encounters such a mass as a singularity possesses, it is accelerated towards that mass as an attracting force.
At the event horizon, we are still able to perceive it, partly due to the time distortion ratio between our own relative reference and that nearing the singularity, and after that it is accelerated beyond our scope to see it as photons in the visual spectrum.
This could be partly due to doppler shift, or it could be that the hypergravity affects the spin of the photon and converts it into other particles, breaking it down at the subatomic level, or transmuting it by affecting its spin, to collide with the mass of the singularity and then add to that mass. It would take extremely-long-term observation (millions of years) to calculate the overall outcome of photon collision with a singularity mass such as a quasar.
The effect is in essence, the absolute opposite of the photonic release in a fission explosion.
One main reason that much of the mass of the galaxy isn't also pulled into that mass is because of its rotation and the spin of the bodies in motion, which act to balance the gravitic tidal forces at work.
In any event, a 'black hole' is not a 'hole' to anywhere. It is a mass of supercompressed particles that has no visual reference, as the light that enters it cannot escape, and thus cannot be observed; visible light must be reflected or refracted off or through a body, and when pulled into a mass with no way to escape, cannot then be reflected back out to be 'seen'.
That is why you cannot see the singularity itself, only the event horizon of the singularity, and of course measure both the gravitic and temporal distortions that it generates with its mass on space-time: We measure its effects on local subjects.
A singularity is an object of one of the following, depending o your purview: A point of no dimension, a point of one-dimension, a point of standard dimension at minimal Planck length in all directions.
One of my own theories revolves around the concept that all forms of matter and energy are essentilly identical, their quanta values signifying their relative position in fourth (and possibly fifth dimensional) space, with a photon being the most distant in the fourth diensional axis, followed by other quanta. The nearer to other states of quanta any one quanta is in the fourth dimension, the more its attractive force, first forming atoms, and then forming compounds.
This ties in with out observations that more massive matter slows down time, as it is extending t the closest portion of that dimension, and thus is perceived as being
slower. While there are flaws in this model as well, I believe it may hold some merit, and I have used it as a model for some of my science-fiction literature.
Edited by ZoriaRPG, 16 October 2013 - 02:25 AM.