What is a black hole?
Everybody has heard the term used in their favorite science-fiction movie. Some people think they
are just that: fiction.
However, most astronomers strongly believe they do exist, and there is significant scientific
evidence to prove it. Though nobody has ever seen a black hole because it is an impossible feat, certain signs point to their presence in the universe.
The whole idea of the black hole revolves around Albert Einstein's theory of general relavtivity. Einstein stated that the gravity of massive objects could distort space and time. Then imagine an object so massive that normal physical properties cease to apply to it. That is a black hole. A balck hole is the imperceptible size of a mathematical point but is unimaginably massive. The black hole forms when a super massive star collapses on itself because of lack of fuel and sucks itself into this tiny revolving singularity, as it is called.
The singularity has so much gravity that nothing can escape its pul past a certain point. Not even waves of light. When light enters a black hole, it does not bounce back like it does when it hits most matter, and that is why black holes are black. The point at which nothing can escape that black hole's pull is called the event horizon. If you were to fall past the event horizon, there would be no hope of you ever returning.
There are many ideas about black holes that have yet to be proven. All scientists can do so far is observe from afar objecs that cannot be seen by the naked eye and collect all the data they can with the hope that some day the truth of black holes will be revealed.