Did you know that the Earth is mostly made up from the stuff that’s been sucked into black holes? Or did you know that there are so many black holes out in space, they could stretch out 100 light years on every side? In this fun post about black holes, we learn all about these bizarre objects and some of their cool characteristics.
What are Black Holes?
Black Holes are a now-popular name for regions of space devoid of light and matter, so called because their visual appearance is that of an infinite “black” mass. Black Holes were theorized by Isaac Newton in the 17th century and were described mathematically by Albert Einstein in 1915.
Definition of a Black Hole
Black Holes are a type of celestial object with a gravitational field so intense that even light cannot escape from it. The term “Black Hole” is used for any large hole in space, but other terms such as “event horizon”, “singularity”, and “wormhole” are used to describe them because they are so difficult to imagine. A black hole is a region of space-time with such strong gravitational forces that nothing, not even light, can escape. Black holes are created when massive stars collapse at the end of their lifetime, and they can also result from supernova explosions.
Types of Black Holes
There are four different types of black holes: stellar, supermassive, intermediate, and micro. Stellar black holes are created when a large star dies. Supermassive black holes are created when a large galaxy dies. Intermediate black holes are created when two galaxies fuse together. Micro black holes can form from the collisions of neutron stars or even the collisions of atoms within our bodies.
What is the Event Horizon?
The Event Horizon is the boundary of a black hole that indicates when it’s Schwarzschild radius has been reached, which is defined as the distance from the center of a black hole to its surface. Anything that crosses this boundary will be doomed to be pulled into nothingness by gravitational forces and never to escape.
How much do black holes weigh?
A black hole’s weight is dependent on its size. In some cases, a black hole can weigh as much as 100 million times the sun. If a black hole weighs 3.8 billion tons, then how much does Earth weigh? The answer is not that simple. This is because how much something weighs depends on its size and density. Earth weighs 63,000 times more than a black hole because it’s about 6 million, or so, times bigger in diameter than the average black hole.
Does a black hole have an event horizon?
An event horizon is the point at which an object cannot affect anything that lies beyond it because the gravitational force from what lies beyond is too great for such an object to influence. The event horizon does not cause time dilation, stoplight paradoxes, or time travel. The event horizon is the boundary beyond which something cannot affect an extremely compacting object because the force of gravity from the object becomes too strong for light to escape. There is no event horizon, in theory, since nothing can actually reach that point.
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Black holes are among the most fascinating objects in the universe. They are so powerful, yet so elusive. They distort and manipulate time and space to pull in anything that crosses their path. Their gravity is so strong that nothing can escape them except for light.
