Black Holes
2 Pages 558 Words
Black Holes
Astrophysicists, for the most part, agree that black holes do exist. There is observational evidence from X-rays and the Hubble telescope that black holes do exist and might be in the center of some galaxies. The properties of a black hole are defined by its mass, charge, and spin.
A black hole is a part of space that has so much mass concentrated in it that nothing could escape its gravitational pull. Black holes have so much concentration of mass that their escape velocity id so high that even light can not escape. Since nothing is faster than light, that means that nothing can escape from a black hole. Scientists in the 1930’s showed that when a massive star runs out of its hydrogen fuel, it could not support itself against its gravitational pull and collapses into a black hole.
Massive objects can distort space and time, making the usual rules of geometry not applicable. Near a black hole space is extremely distorted and causes black holes to have strange properties. Black hole will have an “event horizon”. This is the boundary of the black hole. Once you pass the horizon you can not get back. Once you cross it you will keep moving to the center until you are ripped apart from the extreme gravity.
There is no limit to how big a black hole can be. Technically any amount of mass can be made into a black hole if it has enough density. Since most black holes are believed to be made from dead stars, it is believed that black holes will weigh as much as massive stars. Astronomers also think that many galaxies might have very big black
holes at their centers. These are thought to weigh about a million times bigger than the sun.
If you were to travel to a black hole you would not feel anything at first. You would feel like you are in free fall and weightless. As you get closer and closer to the center you would start to feel the gravitational pull. The gravitational pull gets stronger the cl...