Mystery Of Black Holes

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A black hole is a place in space where gravity pulls so much that even light can not get out.. The theory of general relativity predicts that a sufficiently compact mass will deform spacetime to form a black hole. 

The gravity is so strong because matter has been squeezed into a tiny space. This can happen when a star is dying. 

Because no light can get out, people can't see black holes. They are invisible. Space telescopes with special tools can help find black holes. The special tools can see how stars that are very close to black holes act differently than other stars. 

Around a black hole there is a mathematically defined surface called an event horizon that marks the point of no return. 



Scientists think the smallest black holes formed when the universe began. 

Stellar black holes are made when the center of a very big star falls in upon itself, or collapses. When this happens, it causes a supernova. A supernova is an exploding star that blasts part of the star into space. 

Scientists think supermassive black holes were made at the same time as the galaxy they are in. 

It is called "black" because it absorbs all the light that hits the horizon, reflecting nothing, just like a perfect black body in thermodynamics. Quantum mechanics predicts that event horizons emit radiation like a black body with a finite temperature. This temperature is inversely proportional to the mass of the black hole, making it difficult to observe this radiation for black holes of stellar mass or greater.

Black holes of stellar mass are expected to form when very massive stars collapse at the end of their life cycle. After a black hole has formed it can continue to grow by absorbing mass from its surroundings. By absorbing other stars and merging with other black holes, supermassive black holes of millions of solar masses may form. There is general consensus that supermassive black holes exist in the centers of most galaxies.

Despite its invisible interior, the presence of a black hole can be inferred through its interaction with other matter and with light and other electromagnetic radiation. Matter falling onto a black hole can form an accretion disk heated by friction, forming some of the brightest objects in the universe. 

If there are other stars orbiting a black hole, their orbit can be used to determine its mass and location. These data can be used to exclude possible alternatives (such as neutron stars). In this way, astronomers have identified numerous stellar black hole candidates in binary systems, and established that the core of our Milky Way galaxy contains a supermassive black hole of about 4.3 million solar masses.