ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

Inside a black hole

Updated on June 2, 2013

WHAT IS A BLACK HOLE?

Let’s start off by a basic explanation to black holes. Black holes are scattered all across the universe. It is a region in the universe where the gravity is so great it would suck anything around it in, including light. Well now, what can be a black hole? Anything, including you or me, can be a black hole if we can compress it into a small enough space. This space is so small and so dense that gravitational pull will be very strong. Everything in this universe has something known as a Schwarzschild radius or gravitational radius. The Schwarzschild radius is the radius of a very tiny amount of space so much that if mass was to be compressed within this space; the gravitational pull will be so great that even light can’t escape it.

Singularity
Singularity

WHAT CAUSES A BLACK HOLE?

Now, how does a black hole come about? When a star, with a huge Schwarzschild radius, dies, it will collapse into to a very small space known as a singularity. This point is smaller than half the size of a penny. Its density will be so great and so its gravitational pull will be so great, everything around it will be sucked in.

Light from a galaxy behind the black hole takes a ring shape due to gravitational lensing
Light from a galaxy behind the black hole takes a ring shape due to gravitational lensing

WHAT DOES A BLACK HOLE LOOK LIKE?

How cool would it be if we could actually look at a black hole? What would it look like? If we stood back and looked at a black hole, we would see something bizarre. Light coming from an object behind the black hole would look distorted and warped and would look nothing like the object. The object would take a ring sort of shape. When light travels through gravitational fields they will bend causing a distorted image. This is known as gravitational lensing. In the case of the black hole, gravitational forces are so strong that the image is completely warped.

ENTER THE BLACK HOLE.

Okay, now we know what a black hole is and what it looks like from the outside. But what will happen if we enter one? If we make our way further into the black hole, we will reach the photon sphere. At this point you will see a larger and larger portion of your field of view in darkness and you would probably start to think that traveling into a black hole was a bad idea. In the photon sphere light behave rather oddly. At this point in space light can actually orbit the black hole. This means you can see the back of your body by looking forward. How cool is that?

Now, imagine you brought a friend along with you. If your friend were to watch you go into a black hole, he would see you slowly moving towards the center of the black hole. Due to the powerful gravitational pull, time also gets warped. After a while your friend will observe your body still, and kind of frozen in space. This is when you have reached the no turning back point. You have reached a place in space called the event horizon. At this point in space light can no longer escape. The gravitational pull of the black hole is huge. Your friend watching you from the outside will see your body turn red as light gets increasingly red shifted and to him your body will slowly fade away from view.

Seems like the end? Not yet. Not for you anyway. Now as you move closer and closer to the singularity, you are getting closer to your horrible painful death. Yeah, that’s how it is. Your body will be stretched due to different gravitational forces applied to your body. The parts that are closer to the singularity will be pulled more than the parts away from it and your body will be violently ripped apart and that will be the end of your journey. It’s a pretty gruesome way to die, sure, but when it comes to dying in style, it’s hard to beat getting sucked into a black hole.

WHAT HAPPENS ON THE OTHER SIDE?

Well the truth is we really don’t know what happens on the other side. Maybe black holes are gateways to another galaxy or maybe even another universe. What if your body dematerializes and materializes in another universe breaking all the laws of physics? All you can do right now is wonder and stand at awe to the power of our mysterious universe.

working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)