When you think of something unique, weird, confusing, mysterious, enormous, strong, yet amazing what comes to mind? Yes, Black Holes. A Black Hole is strong enough to retain light and not let it escape, fact in which can give us a simple understanding of how strong a Black Hole is. A Black Hole is too dark to be seen, but like many things in life there’s much more to a Black Hole than what it seems.

The formation of a Black Hole according to scientist is said to be caused by Gravitational Collapse. When a large star is close to the end of its life and is low on fuel it can no longer support its heavy weight, and it implodes. That large star will then begin compressing becoming smaller than an atom! This squashed up star will now become the center of a Black Hole, the Singularity. Even though the star is smaller the amount of mass stays the same, yes I know weird! This makes the Black Hole very powerful due to its gravity that becomes much stronger when the large star becomes tiny. A Black Holes gravity becomes so powerful that whatever gets too close will get sucked in and will never return.

A Black Hole is made up of 3 different parts. The outer layer of a Black Hole is called the Outer Event Horizon. The Outer Event Horizon’s gravity is not as strong as the others, which means if one ever gets caught in this part of the Black Hole one may still escape. The Middle layer is called the Inner Event Horizon, this layer doesn’t let go of anything it comes across. Lastly the center of the Black Hole its called Singularity, here gravity is the strongest.

We should also know that theres more than one type of black hole. One of which is known as the supermassive black hole. The supermassive black hole has many properties that distinguishes it from the rest. For example the supermassive black hole is said to be the largest black hole in any galaxy. Wondering if there’s a Black Hole near? I was asking myself the same question. There’s a Supermassive black hole at the Galactic Center of the Milky Way, meaning right in the center of our galaxy. The nearest black hole is said to be about 1,600 light years away. The miniature Black Hole is said to be another type of black hole but it’s not too often heard because astronomers have yet to find evidence of it existence. They do believe these black holes were created during the Big Bang when the universe was created. Lastly, the Stellar Black Holes are formed like what we had mentioned before when a massive star runs out of nuclear fuel this situation occurs.

Switching to a different subject, what is general relativity? How does it connect with black holes? On page 556 in the “Astronomy Today” textbook we read about general relativity and it’s idea. It says, “Matter, all matter, tends to ‘warp’ or curve space in its vicinity. Objects such as planets and stars react to this warping by changing their paths. In the Newtonian view of gravity, particles move on curved trajectories because they are acted upon by a gravitational force. In Einsteinian relativity, those same particles move on curved trajectories because they are falling freely through space, following the curvature of spacetime produced by some nearby massive object. The more the mass the greater the warping. Thus, in general relativity, there is no such thing as a “gravitational force” in the Newtonian sense. Stated more loosely, as summed up by the renowned physicist John Archibald Wheeler, “Spacetime tells matter how to move, and matter tells spacetime how to curve.” Due to the curved space we notice an increase as the mass of the object causing the distortion increases. Like stated in the textbook in these terms, a black hole is a region of space where the gravitational field becomes overwhelming and the curvature of space extreme.

If you know of any travelers who want to take a trip to a Black Hole, advice them to read “Tidal Forces” on page 557 of there “Astronomy Today” textbook. It states “Matter flowing into a black hole is subject to a great tidal stress. An unfortunate person falling feet first into a solar mass black hole would find himself stretched enormously in height and squeezed unmercifully laterally. He would be torn apart even before he reached the event horizon, for the pull of gravity would be much stronger at his feet than at his head.” Another very fascinating phenomena that occurs with a black hole which has to be my favorite topic is time dilation. Lets say, for example, I take a trip to a black hole and have a clock in hand the closer I get to the hole the slower the clock will tick. On reaching the event horizon my clock will stop, making me freeze in time. Making anyone watching me not see when I get sucked into the event horizon. This process would appear to take forever again due to the time freeze.

No one has ever seen an actual black hole so how do we know they exist? To find out if they exist or not scientist investigate its effects on other objects. They were studied in detailed by the “Uhuru” satellite.

I’ve stated many times in this paper that once one crosses into the event horizon one can’t get out fact that I’ve read in many sources. I can imagine that we are both thinking the same thing. What happens to one once we’re there? What’s on the other side? There’s still plenty of unanswered question when dealing with this topic because we don’t know. Lets say if one is lucky enough to survive and not be torn apart, we don’t know what happens next. Black Holes have alway captured my attention but never before so much like today. Doing my research paper I’ve discovered so much more about the existence of these black holes and their difference. Yet again my favorite topic is time dilation, it opens up our understanding of time. It made me realize how time is different depending where one is. Freezing time, time traveling and anything that has to do with time has to be one of the most interesting topics that hold plenty of more answered in the future.

Sources:

• Eric, Chaisson, and McMillan Steve. Astronomy Today. Seventh Edition. United States : Pearson Education, Inc, 2011. 1-706. Print.
• . “NASA.” WWW.NASA.GOV. Heather R. Smith/NASA Educational Technology Services, 30 2008. Web. 1 Dec 2012. <http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/k-4/stories/what-is-a-black-hole-k4.html>.
• . N.p.. Web. 1 Dec 2012. <http://www.space.com/15421-black-holes-facts-formation-discovery-sdcmp.html>.