What’s a Black Hole?

By: Andre, Christian, Junu, Nathan, & Tobi

A black hole is a singularity of space where matter has been squeezed so densely that nothing can escape it, not even light. This density is so great that space time slows while being inside of a black hole. Black holes have a gravitational pull that is so strong that once something gets caught inside it, it can’t escape. Black holes can range in size from being as small as a ball that fits in your pocket to a black hole that’s a million times bigger than Earth. Yet, all sizes would be dangerous.

How Does a Black Hole Form?

A black hole is usually formed from the destruction of a star leading to a new formation. When the star explodes, the core of it gets unstable and the gravitational pull of the star collapses inward upon itself. The outer layers are blown away and the remaining core ends up forming a black hole. In the process, a supernova occurs as the star gets destroyed. If Black holes swallow any other stars, the star’s matter gets spiraled into a beam of light called a gamma ray. According to NASA, one in a thousand stars become black holes on a daily basis and there are currently 40 quintillion black holes.

Q&A’s Answered by NASA

Q: “If nothing can escape a black hole, what is to come for our universe?”

A: “The universe is a very vast place and is so big that black holes can’t absorb it. In fact, a black hole’s gravitational pull is very little compared to the size of a galaxy.”

Q: “What would happen if we fell into a black hole?”

A: “It certainly would not be good! According to Albert Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, our perception of space and time would be altered. We would also go through a phenomenon called spaghettification where our body’s matter would be shredded like spaghetti.”

Q: “How long does it take for a black hole to form?”

A: “Any black hole that’s around 10 times the mass as the sun would take likely a few seconds for a black hole to form. They are caused by a lot of neutron stars that crash together to either make a black hole or to make a big collision. The probability of having a black hole is very low. ”

What Does a Black Hole Look Like?

You may be wondering what a black hole looks like because if light can’t escape the black hole, shouldn’t it look like nothing? A black hole is visible and just looks like a dark circle with heat surrounding it. According to NASA, a black hole does look like nothing but can be seen because matter near the black hole is heated up millions of degrees because of the dense pressure of gravity. This allows NASA to locate where black holes are.  

What happens if two black holes collide?

Unlike galaxies that break when they crash into each other, when two black holes collide with each other the black holes merge to make one big black hole. This is very scary to think about because imagining a giant black hole that could one day swallow all of the living things in the universe would be terrifying. If that merged black hole merges with another one, it will just get bigger.

What happens when a black hole dies?

When a black hole dies, it evaporates and the energy from the black hole goes back into the universe. A black hole dies in an interesting and strange way. When the Hawking Radiation drains all the mass of a black hole, it loses all its energy and explodes. It can take trillions of years for this to happen and for the black hole to die. Thankfully, compared to the universe, a black hole is very tiny and would not be able to destroy the universe.

How are we going to explore black holes and know more about them in the future?

Currently, we have to use very strong space laboratories in order to know more about black holes because no spacecraft can even go near a black hole. This is why NASA is trying to find materials for spacecraft that allow them to go inside black holes to know more about it. This unfortunately is very unlikely. Hopefully we can find out how to explore outer space.

Can Black Holes be Prevented?

Fortunately, black holes can be prevented if a giant star crashes into a smaller star which would not make a black hole. They would have to be nearly the same size when they crash to make a black hole.

Summary

Black holes are interesting clusters of dark matter that are researched by many astronauts. They are only visible because of the incinerating matter that shows a black hole. Black holes are very destructive but interesting to research about. They also can not only merge to make themselves bigger, they come from the death of stars. Black holes are scary, interesting, multifarious, complex, & gravitational.