Black holes are one of the most mysterious cosmic phenomena, despite how much we continue to learn about them. While considered a mathematical possibility for many years, the first black hole wasn’t discovered until Cygnus X-1 in 1971.
We now know that black holes occur frequently throughout the universe. One Sagittarius A* sits at the center of our galaxy, the Milky Way. In fact, according to NASA most galaxies of a similar size have monster black holes at their center. Sagittarius A* has approximately 4 million times more mass than the Sun.
Black holes aren’t actually holes. They’re named that way because their matter is so dense that even light cannot escape their gravity. In an image of one, you’ll see a ring of light circling around a black hole like a donut. The center of the donut is the black hole. Like stars and planets, black holes also spin. The ring of light and dust that surrounds a black hole is called the accretion disk, which gets hot and bright from spinning quickly around the black hole.
Don’t believe the hype about a scary black hole eating everything it can possibly attract. If our sun were replaced with a black hole of the same mass, our solar system would orbit similarly to how it does now, but it would be a lot colder.
We don’t know what matter looks like inside a black hole. We do know that any matter that crosses the Event Horizon, a black hole’s edge, would ultimately undergo what’s called spaghettification. It’s exactly what it sounds like: Matter would be squeezed and stretched and basically turned into a noodle.
Black holes are not “cosmic vacuum cleaners,” explains NASA. While their gravity is incredibly strong, celestial bodies can orbit black holes just like they do other stars. While an object can be…
Read the full article here
