Ella

​  B l a c k  h o l e s i n s p a c e



​ What is a black hole?... A black hole is a super dense object that has an intense gravitational pull. There are two parts to a black hole, a singularity and a event horizon

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How are they formed?

Just imagine a star which is much more massive than our sun, and which has a mass called the critical mass, which is big enough to cause a black hole to form. What keeps this star from collapsing onto itself and becoming a black hole? There is an intense pressure caused by nuclear reactions within the sun. When the fuel that feeds the nuclear reactions gets used up the massive star cannot support itself anymore. It then collapses to form a black hole.

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Who discovered them?

It is fact that black holes cannot be observed directly and therefore cannot be 'discovered', however there were alot of theoretical thoughts and opinions about what existed in space, and right from 1783 to present time black holes are still being studied. One of the more recent discoveries or definitions of the 'black hole' was by an American scientist, John Wheeler whilst he was giving a lecture to the American Astronomal Society in 1968. The term 'black hole' conveyed a sense of darkness and mystery that raised interest about the subject. The black hole was born.

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Interesting facts about black holes..

-If you get close enough to a black hole you will see the back of your own head! This effect called an Einstein ring, is caused by the intense gravity around a black hole. When you are near a black hole at certain distances the light that leaves from the back of your head will travel though space that is bent so much by gravity that it will enter your eyes.

-Another cool thing about black holes is that they may be able to destroy information! As weird as it sounds. -The gravitational pressure of this highly dense object (black holes) is so large that it can bend fabric of time and space!

-There are currently 14 known black holes in space.

-Although black holes have a strong suction force, they may only suck up what crosses their event horizons, and, therefore, are not capable of absorbing the whole universe.

- Although whiteholes are mathematically possible, their existence has not yet been confirmed nor has there been any observations.

-The closest known black hole to Earth is Cygnus X-1, located about 8000 light years away.

What's inside a black hole? 

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​M87

The largest known black hole to human is Messier 87 or M87 for short. It is a giant elliptical galaxy in the constellation of Virgo (virgo cluster). The M87 black hole appears to be about three billion times the mass of the Sun, with a diameter of about 11 billion miles (18 billion km) ;almost twice the diameter of the orbit of Pluto, the most-distant planet in our solar system. It has one of the highest masses known for a black hole. Gas is growing onto  the black hole at an estimated rate equal to the mass of the Sun every ten years. The total mass of Messier 87 may be 200 times that of the Milky Way.

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