• Question: what are black holes, and will they eventuly destroy everything?

    Asked by pigsflyoverthemoon to Davie, Gemma, James P, James V, Nuala on 29 Jun 2012.
    • Photo: James Pope

      James Pope answered on 29 Jun 2012:

      Hi pigsflyoverthemoon,

      Blackholes are formed when massive stars collapse and in collapsing their mass becomes so great that they generate a field of gravity so strong that even light can not break free, as they emit no light they appear black. Blackholes won’t destroy everything as they don’t grow in size, they have an edge called the Event Horizon upon which the effect of their gravity is not strong enough to trap light or other matter in the Universe.

    • Photo: James Verdon

      James Verdon answered on 2 Jul 2012:

      Hi pigsfly,
      Black holes are points in space that have a huge mass contained in a tiny space. They can be created during supernovas when stars collapse in on themselves. If the star was large enough, there will be enough mass during the collapse to initiate a black hole. Black holes are so heavy that the gravitational field they create in huge.

      As a result, once something is trapped in the gravitational field, it cannot escape, even if it was travelling at the speed of light, which is the fastest speed in the universe. As nothing can travel faster than the speed of light, it means that not even light itself can escape from the clutches of a black hole. Black holes appear black exactly because they are sucking in light, so they appear completely black.

      In science fiction, black holes often seem to have all sorts of amazing properties, with spaceships flying through them to reach alternative universes and things In reality, that’s all complete nonsense. In reality, if you were in a spaceship that got sucked into a black hole, you would simply be squished by the huge gravitational forces, and that would be the end of you!

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