Are you familiar with the term ‘Black Hole’? The name suggests that it’s just an empty hole but it’s way more than that. A black hole is a region of space-time with extremely strong gravity and nothing can escape it, not even light! Shocking, isn’t it? Black holes are so dense that even light traveling at an extremely high speed can’t escape its surface.
Black holes are a very intriguing subject and although scientists have been researching them for an enormously large amount of time we still haven’t been able to unfold everything about them. Now let’s see some terms related to them.
Event Horizon – the point which when crossed by any object can’t escape the black hole, even light, as mentioned above.
Escape Velocity – Escape Velocity is the speed an object must acquire to escape the gravitational force of another body.
Singularity- Situated at the center of a black hole, singularity is a body where mass is contained in an infinitely small space and where density and gravity become infinite and laws of physics cannot operate.
Terms can be hard to understand but by giving it a deep thought, you’ll surely comprehend them.
The structure of a black hole mainly comprises of the event horizon, the singularity-the heart of a black hole - and the Schwarzschild radius. The Schwarzschild radius is where the mass of the body has escaped velocity equal to the speed of light. Once the matter crosses the event horizon, it will fall towards the center, towards the singularity. The process by which an object which comes near the black hole stretches vertically is known as Spaghettification (also known as the noodle effect). Cool, right?
Let’s see the types of black holes –
Miniature: Miniature black holes are just hypothetical tiny black holes.
Supermassive: Supermassive black holes are the largest black holes known to exist having a mass of more than millions or billions times the mass of the sun. Can you imagine?
Stellar: Stellar black holes are formed as a result of a gravitational collapse of a star. Their mass lies between five to tens of solar masses (Solar mass approximately equals 2 x 1030 kg).
Intermediate: Intermediate black holes are ones with mass that ranges from 102-105 solar masses, a bit higher than that of stellar black holes but less than that of supermassive black holes.
Black holes are an ever-expanding topic and yet to be explored completely. Scientists from all over the world are researching black holes and many discoveries are being made as we speak.
Black holes as seen from above are unexplored and scientists have been working hard to get information on various discoveries and structures. Black holes are an interesting subject to research on and one may surely enjoy learning about them - you needn’t be as passionate about space! I hope this helped you improve your knowledge about these mysterious bodies.
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