black holes are among the most
fascinating objects in our universe and
a black hole is a region in space where
the force of gravity is so strong not
even light the fastest known entity in
our universe can escape the boundary of
a black hole is called the event horizon
a point of no return beyond which we
truly cannot see when something crosses
the event horizon it collapses into the
black hole’s singularity an infinitely
small infinitely dense point for
space-time and the laws of physics no
scientists have theorized several
different types of black holes with
stellar and supermassive black holes
being the most common stellar black
holes form when massive stars die and
collapse the roughly 10 to 20 times the
mass of our Sun and scattered throughout
the universe there could be millions of
these Celler black holes in the Milky
Way alone
supermassive black holes are giants by
comparison measuring millions even
billions of times more massive than our
Sun scientists can only guess how they
form but we do know they exist at the
center of just about every large galaxy
including our own Sagittarius a the
supermassive black hole at the center of
the Milky Way has a mass of roughly 4
million Suns and has a diameter about
the distance between the earth and our
Sun
because black holes are invisible the
only way for scientists to detect and
study them is to observe their effect on
nearby matter this includes accretion
disks a disk of particles that form when
gases and dust fall toward a black hole
and quasars Jets of particles that blast
out of supermassive black holes
black holes remained largely unknown
until the 20th century
in 1916 using Einstein’s general theory
of relativity a german physicist named
Karl Schwarzschild calculated that any
mass can become a black hole if it were
compressed tightly enough
but it wasn’t until 1971 when theory
became reality astronomers studying the
constellation cygnus discovered the
first black hole an untold number of
black holes are scattered throughout the
universe constantly warping space and
time altering entire galaxies and
endlessly inspiring both scientists and our collective imagination
fascinating objects in our universe and
a black hole is a region in space where
the force of gravity is so strong not
even light the fastest known entity in
our universe can escape the boundary of
a black hole is called the event horizon
a point of no return beyond which we
truly cannot see when something crosses
the event horizon it collapses into the
black hole’s singularity an infinitely
small infinitely dense point for
space-time and the laws of physics no
scientists have theorized several
different types of black holes with
stellar and supermassive black holes
being the most common stellar black
holes form when massive stars die and
collapse the roughly 10 to 20 times the
mass of our Sun and scattered throughout
the universe there could be millions of
these Celler black holes in the Milky
Way alone
supermassive black holes are giants by
comparison measuring millions even
billions of times more massive than our
Sun scientists can only guess how they
form but we do know they exist at the
center of just about every large galaxy
including our own Sagittarius a the
supermassive black hole at the center of
the Milky Way has a mass of roughly 4
million Suns and has a diameter about
the distance between the earth and our
Sun
because black holes are invisible the
only way for scientists to detect and
study them is to observe their effect on
nearby matter this includes accretion
disks a disk of particles that form when
gases and dust fall toward a black hole
and quasars Jets of particles that blast
out of supermassive black holes
black holes remained largely unknown
until the 20th century
in 1916 using Einstein’s general theory
of relativity a german physicist named
Karl Schwarzschild calculated that any
mass can become a black hole if it were
compressed tightly enough
but it wasn’t until 1971 when theory
became reality astronomers studying the
constellation cygnus discovered the
first black hole an untold number of
black holes are scattered throughout the
universe constantly warping space and
time altering entire galaxies and
endlessly inspiring both scientists and our collective imagination
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