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A black hole is an astronomical object with a gravitational pull so strong that nothing, not even light, can escape it. A black hole’s “surface,” called its event horizon, defines the boundary where the velocity needed to escape exceeds the speed of light, which is the speed limit of the cosmos.
Black holes may sound like science fiction, but there is significant evidence to prove they are real.
A black hole is a region of spacetime wherein gravity is so strong that no matter or electromagnetic energy (e.g. light) can escape it. [2] Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity predicts that a sufficiently compact mass can deform spacetime to form a black hole. [3] [4] The boundary of no escape is called the event horizon.
Now that black holes can be studied directly, scientists wonder whether they really are the strange beasts Albert Einstein's theory predicts. In a simulation, seen from various angles, a black hole’s intense gravity warps the image of the disk of hot, glowing gas surrounding it.
A black hole is a dense, compact object whose gravitational pull is so strong that – within a certain distance of it – nothing can escape, not even light. Black holes are thought to result from the collapse of very massive stars at the ends of their evolution.
It wasn’t until 1968 that black holes got their name, thanks to physicist John Wheeler, who argued that black holes really do exist in the universe. Other astronomers argued that their...
Black holes are some of the most fascinating and mind-bending objects in the cosmos. The very thing that characterizes a black hole also makes it hard to study: its intense gravity. All the mass in a black hole is concentrated in a tiny region, surrounded by a boundary called the “event horizon”.
Black hole, cosmic body of extremely intense gravity from which nothing, not even light, can escape. It can be formed by the death of a massive star wherein its core gravitationally collapses inward upon itself, compressing to a point of zero volume and infinite density called the singularity.
A black hole and its shadow have been captured in an image for the first time, a historic feat by an international network of radio telescopes called the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT).
How do scientists know black holes are real? Despite the lack of insight into the innards of a black hole, physicists do know that black holes exist.