15 Interesting Facts about Black Hole
15 Black Holes affect time
Just as a clock runs a bit slower closer to sea level than up on a space station, clock run really slow near black holes. It all has to do with gravity.
14 They can be infinitely big
Or so some theories state. But without a doubt when it comes to something of this nature there are scientists on both sides of the fence.
13 The nearest black hole to the Earth is 1,600 light years away
Our galaxy is covered in black holes but the one most likely to destroy our measly planet is still well beyond our solar system’s borders.
12 Stay away from the event horizon
The “event horizon” as it is called in physics, is the border of the black of hole. It’s the point of no return. Before that point, you can still escape. After that point…not a chance.
11 There is a massive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy
It’s 30,000 light years away and is over 30 million times as massive as our sun.
10 Black holes eventually evaporate
Although common knowledge states that nothing can escape a black hole, at least one thing does…radiation. According to some scientists, as the black holes emit radiation they are losing mass. This process has the potential to eventually kill the black hole.
9 Black holes are not infinitely small
At some point, the collapsing core of a black hole becomes even smaller than an atom or an electron, and it eventually reaches its Planck Length, a quantum size limit that makes it barely measurable.
8 Black holes are not funnel-shaped; they are spheres
In most textbooks you will probably see black holes that look like funnels. This is because they are being illustrated from the perspective of gravity wells. In reality they are more like spheres.
7 Black holes spin
When the core of a star collapses, the star rotates faster and faster and becomes smaller and smaller. When it reaches the point where it does not have enough mass to become a black hole, it gets squeezed together to form a neutron star and continues to spin rapidly. Same applies to black holes. Even when the black hole shrinks down to Planck length it continues to spin rapidly.
6 Things get weird when they get near a black hole
Black holes have the capacity to distort space itself, and as they continue to spin, that distortion gets just as distorted. It’s an infinite regression of distortions.
5 Getting near a black hole can kill you in horrible ways
Although it seems obvious that a black hole is incompatible with life, most people think they would just get crushed. This isn’t necessarily the case. You would most likely get stretched to death because whatever part of your body reaches the even horizon horizon first will experience significantly more gravity.
4 Black holes are not always black
Although they are known for their blackness, as we said earlier they actually do emit electromagnetic radiation.
3 Black holes aren’t necessarily only destructive
Of course, in most circumstances they probably would be but there have been numerous theories, studies, and suggestions put forth that black holes can actually be harnessed for things like power and space travel.
2 Black holes can get really big
Although we just talked about how small they are, black holes get larger and larger as they collide with other black holes allowing their size to increase with every collision.
1 There are different kinds of black holes
Modern astronomers have shown that black holes actually come in different variations. There are spinning black holes, electrical black holes, and spinning electrical black holes. The type of black hole depends on the amount of energy it puts out when it distorts space.