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
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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
The sixty-symbols website has quite the collection of intriguing astronomical theories and interviews, but I specifically chose that of the black hole that contains interviews by Omar Almaini, Ed Copeland, Tony Padilla, Meghan Gray and Mike Merrifield from the University of Nottingham. The video began by a man revealing to his audience that he is often questioned about his personal opinion on black holes, which he informs us that “of course” he sees them as frightening and intimidating but goes on to refer to them as “cuddly”. Upon further explanation he points out two small (but different sized), round, black balls of fabric (that seemed to be knitted) that were gifts for his sister-in-law and they are meant to be representation of black holes with their solid black exterior. This seems like a useless example, but after thinking about it more critically I realize that I wasn’t
Throughout the modern era of astronomy, a single type of celestial object has puzzled astronomers more than any other. Black holes, whose existence was only verified in the early 1990’s, have fascinated scientists ever since Einstein first proposed the theoretical concept in the 1930’s. A black hole is an object so tiny, but also so dense, that it has the power to pull planets, stars, and even light into its core, and ultimately destroy everything in its path. Over the past decade much has been discovered about these enigmas of space and time; however, many of these recent discoveries lead to more unanswered questions. Nevertheless, the basic life cycle of a black hole is now understood in ways thought to be impossible only twenty years
A black hole is a point in space where there is extreme gravitational pull, so extreme that light itself cannot escape. The strength of gravity is so strong due to the fact that an immense amount of matter has been contained in a small space.
This paper will introduce you to the incredible topic which is black holes. A black hole is a region of space time exhibiting such strong gravitational effects that nothing can escape from inside it. (NASA) No human has ever entered a black hole and there is still a large mystery about them; we have very little idea of where the matter that enters them goes. A black hole cannot be looked into either, as it sucks all the light into the middle of it. Space programs use special satellites with certain features that allow them to see these black holes. A black hole can be big or small, sometimes forming when a star is dying. Some scientists speculate that there can be black holes just 1 centimeter large. There are multiple types of
Black holes are associated with the destruction or dying of relatively large stars. Black holes do not happen every time such stars are collapsed. The collapsing of stars mostly result in
Light is the fastest entity in the known universe, making black holes the strongest known object. At least knowing how big one is would allow for some creativity, but describing a black hole’s size is yet another issue. When you’re trying to ask someone how big something is you’re going to be referring to the space it takes up. In this regard, a black hole can range from being smaller than an atom, to millions of times larger than our sun, or really any size in principal. “Any amount of mass at all can […] be made to form a black hole if you compress it to a high enough density.” (Bunn) Density, the compactness of an object, is a better way of describing a black hole because the way we think of size has no meaning here. You could also talk about its mass, or the sheer amount of material inside of it, but that is hard to quantify. For example, a black hole the size of an atom may contain all of the masses of our greatest mountains, but you can imagine something like that must be very dense. Either way, there are two common models for what a black hole could look like. If a black hole is spinning, then it’s likely that the material inside of it is being compressed into a rotating disk of particles. On the other hand, a regular black hole is likely just to be a perfect sphere. Anything outside of the black hole’s insides may also display unique properties, such as giving off electricity, emitting radiation or streams of light, and debris may orbit the
The common conceptual intuition of black holes includes the fact that they attract matter with great force in such a manner that it engulfs everything in its proximity. The concept of accretion disks and as we shall see, particles escaping the gravitational potential,
Mysteries of black holes always unknown as in where they come from. “Black holes form when the center of a massive star collapses in on itself.” When this occurs, it causes a supernova. A supernova is a star that increases greatly in brightness because of a catastrophic explosion that ejects most of its mass. The parts left over from the supernova collapse in onto itself forming a black hole. This well-known black hole is called a stellar mass black hole. “Scientists believe supermassive black holes have formed at
Common types of black holes are produced by certain dying stars. A star with a mass greater than 20 times the mass of our sun can produce a black hole at the end of its life. Black holes are usually only created by the death of a very massive star. When a very massive star dies, it explodes into a supernova. The outer parts of the star are launched violently into space while the core completely collapses under its own weight. If the core remaining after the giant explosion from the supernova is very massive, there
Black Holes are the universe's most mysterious objects known to mankind. It lies in the darkness waiting and waiting for something...anything to come up and devour it without a trace. Black Holes are relatively new to humans, but we know that they’ve been here for millions and millions of years. Many people are unaware of the history of black holes, how a black hole is created and its function , and how there were theories leading up to black holes.
There are two types of black holes that exist in our universe. The first one being the Schwarzschild black hole which happens to be the simplest one of the two. This black hole is considered the simplest because its core does not rotate which means the black hole is completely stable at all times of the day. The next black hole is the Kerr black hole, which happens to be the most common in nature. This black hole in contrast to the Schwarzschild black hole does indeed rotate. When the rotating star dies out and collapses, the core continues to rotate and therefore, that carries over to the black hole. Scientists believe that the smallest black holes formed when the actual universe formed and began. They also have been led to believe that the supermassive black holes that exist in our universe were made at the same time as the galaxy that they
How are black holes formed? Black holes are said to be made from stars that run out of core energy or the fuel that is in the middle. Once the star runs out of energy it caves on itself and then explodes. The explosion of the star has a scientific term; this term is called supernova. This was discovered the 1604 when Johannes Kepler saw a three colors: blue, green, and red explode in the sky. Scientists think that black holes are created after a supernova. If you get scared easily then you have to remembered
Black holes are born from the aftermath of a supernova. But supernovas can also turn into neutron stars if there is not enough mass to make a black hole because a neutron star just does not have the amount of matter to make a black hole it still has an extremely high gravitational pull and magnetic field. A black hole has such a high gravitational pull that light can not even escape. The reason for a black hole’s extremely high gravitational pull is that it has a great extent of mass packed into a tiny space that it makes a super gravitational pull (Dunbar, Brian). So because of the super high gravity black holes are extremely dangerous and hard to examine.
A quasar is defined as a massive celestial object, producing large amounts of energy and light. These are believed to contain massive black holes in their centers. These large celestial objects were thought to be abundant at the early beginning of the universe, but now have slowly turned dormant (Shields and Kormendy).There are multiple kinds of black holes that exist in our universe, one of them is a quasar as previously stated. These black holes exist in a massive ball of gasses and dust that is used as fuel for the black hole. These objects can be thousands of times brighter that even the brightest star found due to the extreme amount of energy released (Mari 56). They are often found at the centers of galaxies and are credited towards the early formation of the universe. They then run out of fuel and continue to be the strong gravitational force at the center of most galaxies holding them together (Shields and
Ever since I first learned about fractions as a child, I was always heavily agitated by the fact that every time I would ask my teacher about dividing by zero, or have a calculator perform a equation where a non-zero number was divided by zero, I would just be told there was no solution. I wondered for years about why there simply was no practical way to express a number divided by zero, until I learned about something strangely similar to dividing a number by zero, being black holes, or a gravitational singularity (a single point in space with a certain mass, equating to a density where the mass of the object is divided by zero). Just like dividing by zero, black holes are usually represented as an undefined point in