RAB Source Entry #3 – Jerick Espinal

RQ: “What would happen if a person fell into a black hole?”

Part 1: MLA Citation –
Boyd, Padi, host, Regina Caputo and Jeremy Schnittman, guests. “Inside a Black Hole.” NASA’s Curious Universe, Season 2, Episode 7, NASA, 25 Sept. 2023, https://www.nasa.gov/podcasts/curious-universe/inside-a-black-hole/

Part 2: Summary –
Throughout the podcast “Inside a Black Hole.”, hosted by Padi Boyd, Boyd and her guests Regina Caputo and Jeremy Schnittman discuss the nature of black holes, things on how they are made, how they form, how people detect black holes, and what happens if someone gets close to a black hole and the eventual fate of black holes in the future. Boyd starts off the podcast with introducing the topic of black holes and gives mostly a general overview of the whole topic of the podcast, after that the guests Caputo and Schnittman talk types of black holes and going more in depth into black holes, such as both Caputo and Schnittman explaining that a stellar-mass black hole is made by a dead star collapsing in on itself after losing its fuel, and how the formation process of a supermassive black hole is unknown but it is always seen to be in the center of galaxies, among other things like the future of our sun in the new few billion years and the mass and size of supermassive black holes. In the half way mark of the podcast Boyd would introduce how black holes are detected by mentioning multiple methods like gravitational lensing and gravitational waves and how they are used to detect black holes, with Caputo then adding on that black holes are also detected by high-energy radiation that gets emitted from the event horizon when materials get close with Schnittman describing how the black hole Cygnus X-1 was found with unusual behavior of a star that was orbiting something invisible with and going more in depth with gravitational lensing. Caputo and Schnittman will then turn the topic over to spaghettification and what happens inside a black hole exactly, Caputo and Schnittman talking about how a black hole can stretch you like spaghetti and a black hole can tear you apart due to it’s extreme gravity and then both of them discussing how entering the event horizon of a supermassive black hole is different from a stellar-mass black hole, Caputo explaining how a person is trapped in the black hole once passing the horizon and Schnittman explaining how passing the horizon also does things to not only the person but, stuff in the horizon such as time bending after passing the horizon and even reality being warped and changed due to the extreme gravity a black holes event horizon has. Lastly, the podcast would start to come to an end with Caputo talking about the end of black holes and how theoretically black holes can “die” by running out of fuel and also discussing Stephen Hawking’s black hole theory that was called Hawking’s radiation, and Schnittman discussing the long-lasting nature of black holes and how even if black holes gather a lot of materials and grow there will be a time when black holes will sit there and no longer consume stars or gas , Boyd also explaining the long lasting life cycle of black holes and how in the far future that black holes would end up dominating the universe since stars will always end up burning out no matter what.

Part 3: Rhetorical Analysis –
This episode of the podcast is definitely more intended for an audience of people who want to learn about black holes while also being able to be pushed to an audience of people who are already known in the topic but, want to learn more in depth things about black holes. The podcast is definitely shifted towards a m0re educational type of genre, using an engaging and conversational like tone to make it out to the listeners like they are just talking to a friend about a topic they really enjoy about and learning off of each other instead of actually making it feel like it’s just someone trying to teach you something which can make the episode more engaging. The podcast uses both logos and ethos by using facts and research for the podcast and making it more trustworthy due to the status of both guests Schnittman and Caputo for these facts. NASA is shown to be a credible source due to it being the main source for any sort of space or science information due to all of the equipment that NASA is said to have and also being the agency responsible for the U.S government’s science and their air and space technology, with also being the main source for very important space findings.

Part 4: Notable Quotes –
“Basically the first part of you that was starting to get closer and closer to the black hole would start to experience the really extreme gravity that was near the black hole. Say if you were going feet first, you know, your feet would start to be stretched apart basically like a spaghetti.” (Caputo, Regina)

“Here’s the crazy part. If your friend were watching this happen to you, they might see you get stretched – but it would happen really slowly until at some point it might look like you were frozen in time… like you never passed through the event horizon.” (Boyd, Padi)

“This only happens with stellar mass black holes where you can feel that change in gravity. But, if you found yourself entering a supermassive black hole, you wouldn’t feel a thing! All of a sudden, you just would be inside the black hole, never to be seen again. Well, kind of…” (Boyd, Padi)

“There’s even a technical term for it. It’s called spaghettification. Basically, just rip you to pieces.” (Schnittman, Jeremy)