Hey! It's me again. I've got another article today, this one being about black holes: what they are, why they are one of the most fascinating celestial bodies we know of, and why we will hopefully never have to see one anywhere near our own galaxy.
Black holes are one of the most intriguing things about space. I mean, it’s a huge gaping hole in the middle of an abyss that the simple thought of is quite terrifying. Just look at it!
(It is not exactly threatening like this, is it?)
Black holes have a strong enough gravitational pull to even such in light, making it so fascinating. Nothing can escape a black hole, and it can take only seconds for one to form.
Black holes are formed when stars die, and the gravitational pull of the centre of the star is too great for the star to handle, so it collapses on itself, leaving a massive hole in the universe. Its pull can even rip stars apart – we should be glad we have never seen one anywhere near our planet!
In fact, the only black holes we know of have formed so far away from the Milky Way that the first ever image taken of a black hole was taken in 2019 (only 3 years ago!), and the black hole was over 55 million light years away. That is incredibly recent for something that has been theorised since Einstein himself was alive, and first found in 1971. It is both impressive and terrifying to think that such things are real and within visible sight here on Earth.
Even just taking the image of the black hole was a challenge – how does one take a picture of something that sucks in light? Well, the official NASA image above had to be taken with the surrounding matter to highlight the actual black hole. Matter around the black hole is heated to a million degrees as it is taken in by the black hole, which means it is only detectable using x-rays over such a long distance. But what an achievement that was! Because now scientists are able to name different sections of black holes and describe their existence much more accurately.
Within black holes, time and space take on different roles, meaning you would, in theory, be travelling through time instead of space. It is important to note that you would simply not survive the journey; the gravitational pull of the black hole would cause “spaghettification” to occur – you would turn into a human strand of spaghetti! Although, it is interesting to think that time-bending is a real concept. Who knows? Maybe time travel will be possible, or maybe Einstein was right. (I might just look into that for the next article)
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