What is a Black Hole?
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In its simplest sense, a black hole is an area of space wherein there is no way for an object to escape its gravitational pull. Do black holes exist? Astronomers certainly believe they do, though confirmation of black holes can not currently be made by direct evidence. Items contained in a black hole will remain there for an infinite period of time.
In a black hole, there is a huge concentration of mass. This is what gives the black hole its gravitational strength. Scientists generally agree that black holes are formed following the death of a massive star. As we know, the sun is a star, but scientists do not think the sun is large enough to ever have the capacity to create a black hole upon its death. Rather, for a dying star to create a black hole it would have to weigh ten times more than our sun itself.
Because a black hole has such intense gravitational pull, nothing can escape it, not even light. This lack of light accounts for the term "black" hole, as the gravitational forces will cause its appearance to remain dark infinitely. Though scientists cannot see black holes, when they find areas in space where large amounts of mass are contained in a small volume, and the area is dark, chances are there is a black hole in the area.
Our sun will never develop into a black hole, according to scientists and astronomers. These men and women also indicate that the sun can be expected to endure as it is for another 5 billion years. However, to get a feel of what it would be like entering a black hole, scientists suggest astronauts in a space ship would experience a floating, gliding sensation as they neared the black hole. This would be a pleasant experience as the gravitational forces would be similar to simply orbiting the earth at first. However, as the space ship moved closer and closer to the black hole, the areas of the body closest to the center of the black hole would begin to feel more pull. For instance, your feet would begin to feel a stretching sensation as you grow closer to the black hole. Eventually, according to researchers, this pull or stretching sensation would grow to be quite uncomfortable and would eventually crush the human body.
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15
As I have previously stated: a black hole actually has no mass, yet it has tremendous gravity -- and here's another kicker. While attracting normal matter, it actually repels dark matter ( all your usual sub-atomic constituents). A feeding black hole simply removes that which provides binding energy. Remember, gravity both attracts and repels. What our physicists should be focused on is a "unified theory" which explains what is attracted and what is repelled and why. The question most 'armchair' physicists ponder, I think, is "if gravity is the weakest force, why is it also the strongest force(backhoe)?" - anon48065
14
A black hole actually has no mass. It has tremendous gravity and therefore the appearance of mass. A black hole is merely an opening in normal space. Sure it takes the rotational dynamic of a massive spiral galaxy to create it, but by its nature it can contain nothing. Also, it is not spherical in shape. It is a membrane with a thick ring perimeter in line with the galactic plane. It can feed in both directions which is why it can jet energy and particles in both directions. It is "not" a doorway to other dimensions. Since it is the absence of normal space, normal matter enters but only particles pass through. The energy released is all the particle binding energy. Trust me -- you would not want to fly a shuttle or any other space craft through it. - anon45100
13
Black holes are spinning on an axis quite fast. This warps space-time. The jets coming out of a black hole must be travelling unbelieviably fast (faster than speed of light 186,000 mi/s).
Did those jets just escape a black hole? Or is it that the spinning of the black hole has warped Space-Time that gravity is weaker? How fast are the jets or what is the gravity like there? - anon40703
12
But going light speed would increase your mass which would crush yourself. Hibbs, a possible particle that is gravity, could control this effect.
Also when going through a black hole the gravitional effect would crush you. Due to its gravitional pull which is the speed of light, things which go into a black hole. usually get expelled out through the jets of it. - anon38974
11
do objects pulled into a black hole become part of the black hole - anon38157
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All the mass of a black hole is concentrated at the event horizon held in balance by what science currently calls dark energy. What is calld a singularity is no more an "object" than the center of a balloon is and object. - anon37758
9
"In its simplest sense, a black hole is an area of space wherein there is no way for an object to escape its gravitational pull." Wrong. This is in special relativity. In general relativity, a BH is a region where the geometry of space is so distorted that it takes forever to reach the surface. A BH in GR has no inside, as it takes forever to reach the surface. Do not try to visualize the strange geometry. Remember G=T is the equation of GR.How would it feel like to approach a BH? The same feeling one gets when one dies. Time stops for the dying person, for the dead cannot communicate with the living. Likewise, as one approaches a BH, the person loses all ability to communicate with the rest of the universe. - saranoff
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One cannot go back into time. If we can go into the past, then the past did not pass. Going faster than light means going back into time. I am surprised at the low level of physics on this forum!Time on earth is slower than time on a satellite. Imagine the mass of the earth increased to the point where the time on earth slows to zero. This means that it would take forever to fall to the surface. This is a black hole, which is a concept in general relativity (gravitation = stress-energy). Forget the inside. In special relativity, where time does not change due to mass, we note that the escape velocity increases with mass, and for a large enough mass the escape velocity is greater than the speed of light. - saranoff
7
A black hole is a star that collapses into the point of zero and its space time curvature is infinite And Its density. A white hole on the other hand is the time Opposite of a black hole instead of inhaling matter it expels it. Some say when you enter a black hole you come out through a white hole. But white holes are only possible in equations. And entering a black hole Will end up in doom. - anon32598
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My theory is that a black hole is similar to a neutron star. In fact, I think it is a star with such gravity. I'd also like to learn more about its opposite "white hole" which is supposed to expel matter. - anon31205
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Perhaps if a shuttle could do that it would pass straight through but instead everything is pulled to the center of the black hole and crushed from the pull never to escape. - anon26885
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Yeah but the schwarzchild radius is quite large (Although it depends on the size of the black hole)so if you get caught in, your stuck forever. Game Over. Death is sure. - anon25512
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External observers note that it takes forever for an object to enter a BH. In science, we require that all events have to be observable in principle. Since it is impossible to observe the falling into a black hole, this does not happen. The solution of GR saying that this does happen is false, due to the singularity at the center. - saranoff
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If just under the right circumstances, a shuttle was made faster than light and very strong to withhold that immense gravitational pull, it should go right through the "Black hole" which in fact isn't just a star that has collapsed on it self, if you actually look on images you can see that the hole has swirls around it and also gets thinner and thinner all the way through making the gravity more pulling, if you notice all a black hole is, is just part of the solar system that has been compressed on itself so in theory it should just lead through and out into another part of the galaxy.
- anon22738
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D Frank
Last Modified: 09 October 2009
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