The name black
hole gives the impression that there’s a hole in space. This isn’t true by any
means. The definition of hole is an empty void. Black holes are exactly the
opposite of a hole. Black holes are objects made of large amounts of matter
packed into a very dense, compact state. A black hole has so much gravity that
light can’t even escape its pull. This is why a black hole is black.
How can you pack such a large amount of matter into such a tiny
space, you ask? The answer’s simple. This occurs out of violence on a stellar
scale. A star is formed, and pops out of a cloud of gas and dust. The gases
heat up because gravity causes contraction of the cloud. The star is
born in a great burst of light. The star shines brightly and warmly for
billions of years. Then, one day it uses up all its fuel, entering its death
throes. This is otherwise known as stellar collapse. A bunch of
different types of superdense objects can
form. Then, some of these objects can lead to black holes.
Stars
There are
three types of black holes: supermassive, stellar, and
mini.
A supermassive
black hole sits in the center of galactic nuclei and quasars.
These black holes gather in millions of stars, dust, and gases. Sometimes even
planets get pulled in. Whatever gets pulled in, there’s an enormous amount of
energy that comes with it. “In 1994 the Hubble Space
Telescope provided conclusive evidence for the existence of a supermassive black hole at the center of the M87 galaxy,”
as stated on (Hotu.org. Black Holes, 2000).
This evidence shows that supermassive black holes really
do exist.
Stellar black
holes are another type. They are formed at the end of a red giant star’s
lifetime. When no more atoms are in the star, there’s no fuel left. It then
becomes a black hole by falling into singularity. Anything, including
light, that floats by within a couple of kilometers gets sucked in. Not
even light rays can escape this because it takes a speed faster than that of
light.
The third of
the black holes is the mini black hole. It is thought that these were formed by
the Big Bang. Lots of little primordial black holes were possibly
created, also. While a proton gets pulled into a mini black hole, an antiproton
may be escaping, (or vice-versa.) This process actually removes energy from the
black hole, thus removing the black hole completely over time. supermassive black hole sits in
the center of galactic nuclei and quasars. These black holes
gather in millions of stars, dust, and gases. Sometimes even planets get pulled
in. Whatever gets pulled in, there’s an enormous amount of energy that comes
with it. “In 1994 the Hubble Space Telescope provided conclusive evidence for
the existence of a supermassive black hole at the enter of the M87 galaxy,” as stated on (Hotu.org. Black Holes, 2000). This evidence shows that supermassive black holes really do exist.
Stellar black holes are another
type. They are formed at the end of a red giant star’s lifetime. When no more
atoms are in the star, there’s no fuel left. It then becomes a black hole by
falling into singularity. Anything, including light, that floats by
within a couple of kilometers gets sucked in. Not even light rays can
escape this because it takes a speed faster than that of light. The third of
the black holes is the mini black hole. It is thought that these were formed by
the Big Bang.
Lots
of little primordial black holes were possibly created, also. While a
proton gets pulled into a mini black
hole, an antiproton
may be escaping, (or vice-versa.) This process actually removes energy from the
black
hole, thus removing the black hole completely over time.
A giant red star
Binary stars
Because
they’re black, black holes are impossible to see but, not impossible to detect.
They can only be found by machines that detect gravitational energy and
radiation from objects.
A supermassive
black hole can be detected by its huge gravitational pull. Also, since so much
is pulled into them, they let off a huge amount of radiation.
A stellar black hole can be
found in binary stars, (two stars orbiting around each other.)
Lastly,
all mini black holes would have evaporated already. So now they can’t be seen
or found.