Black Holes: Facts, Theory,

and Definition

An artist's drawing a black hole named Cygnus X-1. It formed when a large star
caved in. This black hole pulls matter from blue star beside it.
Image Credit:
NASA/CXC/M.Weiss
 What is a Black Hole?
• VERY dense place in space where gravity has
become so extreme that it overwhelms all other
forces.
– Gravity is so strong because matter has been squeezed
into a tiny space.
– Because no light can escape, we can't see black holes.
– But…we can see how stars and gas that are very close
act differently than other stars.
• When a star and black hole are close together, high energy light is
made and can be measured by satellites/telescopes.
• May pull gas off the star and create an “accretion disk” around
itself.
 Discovery
• First predicted by Einstein in 1916 with the
general theory of relativity.
• Term “black hole” was coined in 1967 by
John Wheeler, American astronomer.
• First discovered by Wheeler in 1971
 Type: Primordial
• Smallest
• Scientists think they may be the size of a
single atom but have the mass of a
mountain
• Thought to have formed early (right after
the Big Bang)
 Type: Stellar
• Formed when a massive star collapses
• Relatively small, but VERY dense
• Mass may be up to 20x more than the
mass of our Sun
• Consume dust and gas around them to
grown in size.
 Type: Supermassive
• May be millions or billions of times the mass of
the Sun but have the same radius
• Thought to be at the center of every galaxy
– Sagittarius A is the center of Milky Way.
• Scientists aren’t sure how they form, may be the
result of:
 many smaller black holes merging
large gas clouds collapsing and accreting mass
collapse of a group of stars
• Once formed, they gather gas and dust from
around them and grow.
 Black Hole Theory
• Incredibly massive but only cover a small
area.
• Extremely strong gravitational force – not
even light can escape
• Holes have 3 “layers”
– Outer event horizon
– Inner event horizon
– Singularity
 The layers…
• Event horizon - boundary
around the mouth of the
black hole where light
loses its ability to escape
– Once a particle crosses the
event horizon, it cannot
leave.
• Singularity
– Single point in space-time
where the mass of the
black hole is concentrated.