Black Holes!

By: Maxwell Trey Michaud

Black holes are regions of space time (space and time in one continuum) in which nothing, not even light can escape. Stellar black holes are formed when a massive star runs out of fuel to keep it all puffed up and it collapses on itself. The extra layers of the star may blast away into space or fall into the black hole and make it even heavier.

What is A Black Hole?

Karl Schwarzschild is credited with being the brilliant astronomer who developed the concept of black holes. In 1916, he used Einstein's theory of relativity to say if a star got down to a infinitesimal* point the orbits of all of the planets/stars around it would stay the same. He made an equation that will tell you the maximum radius of an object with a specific mass that will not let light escape. Rs=2MG/(c^2)

*Infinitesimalsomething so small that there is no way of expressing it or measuring it.

Rs=2MG/(c^2) This means that the critical radius R (subscript) s is equal to twice the mass times G the gravitational constant. divided by c the speed of light (in centimeters per second) squared.

Who First Discovered Black Holes?

There is no sure fire way to detect black holes. But, scientists are beginning to try to detect them by using their knowledge of binary solar systems helps. A binary solar system is when two stars orbit each other. If astronomers see the effects of two stars orbiting each other but dont see a second star, it is most likely a black hole. Also the gasses from the outside of the star would be attracted so greatly by the black hole that they would start draining from the star; joining the accretion disk of the black hole.

How Do We Detect Black Holes?

There are many parts to a black hole, but these are the most important!
First, there is the event horizon, an area of the black hole in which nothing can escape. Everything that goes into the event horizon is crushed into one point, in which some say mass has reached infinite density.
Next is the accretion disk. The accretion disk is a disk of matter that is made of gas and dust that get really hot as they collide with each other while they spin into the black hole. This is also called the ergo sphere.

Also, jets of hot gas have been found streaming out of black holes. They run for millions of light years in length. They are found in some black holes.

Parts of a Black Hole

The last part of a black hole is the most difficult to grasp. It is called singularity. It is the point of a black hole (most likely in the center) in which it is said to have zero volume and infinite density. In the area of singularity the way we know time and space cease to exist. The laws of physics start breaking down too. Its really impossible to imagine something with no volume and infinite density, so its a really hard concept to grasp.

Parts of a Black Hole

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