Black Holes
WHAT IS A BLACK HOLE?
A black hole is a region in space where gravity is so strong that nothing—not even light—can escape from it. That’s why it looks “black.” They’re like giant space vacuums, but cooler and more dangerous.
HOW ARE BLACK HOLES FORMED?
There are a few types, but here's the main one:
Stellar Black Holes:
Formed when a massive star (8x our Sun or more) runs out of fuel and collapses under its own gravity after a supernova explosion. Boom. Black hole.
TYPES OF BLACK HOLES:
Stellar Black Holes – formed from dying stars.
Supermassive Black Holes – found at the center of galaxies. M87 has one. Our Milky Way has one too: Sagittarius A*.
Intermediate Black Holes – not tiny, not huge. Kinda in-between.
Primordial Black Holes – hypothetical, formed after the Big Bang. Super tiny.
WHAT'S INSIDE A BLACK HOLE?
Nobody knows for sure, but here’s what we think:
The Event Horizon – the “point of no return.” Once you pass this, there’s no escape.
The Singularity – a tiny point in the center where gravity is infinite, and space and time bend like crazy.
Time literally slows down the closer you get. TIME TRAVEL & BLACK HOLES?
YEP. Near a black hole, time slows down massively because of extreme gravity (thanks to Einstein’s General Relativity). It's called gravitational time dilation. In theory, someone orbiting a black hole could experience only a few hours while years pass outside.
CAN BLACK HOLES COLLIDE?
YES! When two black holes smash into each other, they create gravitational waves—ripples in space-time. We actually detected these in 2015 (LIGO). Big win for science.
WHAT HAPPENS IF YOU FALL IN?
Depends:
If it's a small black hole: you get spaghettified—your body stretches like pasta.
If it's a massive one: you might not even notice crossing the event horizon… for a few seconds at least.
Either way—no coming back. 😬
CAN WE SEE THEM?
Not directly, but we can see:
The glowing accretion disk (superheated gas swirling around).
Gravitational lensing—light bending around it.
And now, images from the Event Horizon Telescope (M87 and Sagittarius A*).
WHAT IF A WHITE HOLE SHOWED UP?
White holes are like black holes in reverse. Nothing can enter; everything gets thrown out. They’re hypothetical, but some scientists think the Big Bang might’ve been a white hole.
FUN FACTS:
Black holes evaporate slowly over time via Hawking Radiation.
There might be millions of tiny black holes floating around.
Some theories say black holes may be gateways to other universes (Wormholes??).
The Milky Way’s black hole, Sagittarius A*, is 4 million times more massive than the Sun.