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Essay about Physics of Black Holes

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Black holes - the strange scientific phenomenon that has astounded physicists and astronomers alike for decades. Popular subjects in science fiction novels, black holes are one of the greatest enigmas of the scientific world. Even today, the concept of a super-dense ball of matter that not even light can escape from is somewhat farfetched, and many scientists disagree with each other about nearly every aspect of a black hole. This project will attempt to shed some light on these mysterious formations, and will inform you the reader of the most popular and widely accepted theories surrounding them.

Karl Schwarzschild is credited with being the brilliant astronomer who developed the concept of black holes. In 1916, using Einstein's …show more content…

American physicist John Wheeler coined the name "black hole" in 1968, and is was one of the most influential scientists in the study of black holes, contributing a vast amount of research to our accepted understanding of black holes today.

The simple explanation that almost any idiot can understand: a black hole is basically a massive amount of matter compressed into a tiny, tiny little ball.

A little more in depth: Black holes are the remnant of stars that have gone supernova and collapsed upon themselves. When the star explodes in a supernova, not only does it explode outwards but it pushes inwards on its own core as well. The pressure placed on the core causes it to implode upon itself, and that's where the black hole is formed. However, black holes are only formed by stars large enough to create one... for instance the sun, everyone's favorite star, will likely not become a black hole once it goes nova. A star 10 times the size of our sun probably will, depending on how much matter is lost in the supernova. Only those huge stars have enough gravity to create a black hole.

The black hole gets its name from its massive gravity levels. The gravity associated with a black hole is so great that not even light can escape from it. This absence of light will obviously make the black hole appear to be, well, completely black.

What exactly goes on in a black hole is a mystery to scientists, since A) we really

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