Black Holes: Monsters of the Cosmos
First of all, what is a black hole?
A black hole is a place in space where gravity is so strong that even light cannot get out of it. The gravity is so strong because matter has been squeezed into a tiny space. This can happen when a star of a certain size reaches the limit of its life and causes an explosion called a supernova, some time later all the accumulated energy is concentrated in a single point and this generates a black hole.
Because light can't get out, people can't see black holes. They are invisible. Space telescopes with special tools can help find black holes. Special tools can see how stars that are very close to black holes act differently from other stars. Black holes tend to vary in size and therefore in gravitational force, which leads us to the next question.
How big can black holes be?
Black holes can be big or small. Scientists think the smallest black holes are as small as just one atom. These black holes are very tiny but have the mass of a large mountain. Mass is the amount of matter, or "stuff," in an object.
Another kind of black hole is called "stellar." Its mass can be up to 20 times more than the mass of the sun. There may be many, many stellar mass black holes in Earth's galaxy. Earth's galaxy is called the Milky Way.
The largest black holes are called "supermassive." These black holes have masses that are more than 1 million suns together. Scientists have found proof that every large galaxy contains a supermassive black hole at its center. The supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy is called Sagittarius A. It has a mass equal to about 4 million suns and would fit inside a very large ball that could hold a few million Earths.
For this and many other reasons, they are considered to be the most dangerous bodies in the cosmos, capable of devouring everything in their path.
Manuel Ruz.
I think that this topic is very interesting for everyone because everyone had heard anytime about black holes but the majority don’t know much about this topic, that is, for example, the majority of people know the black hole because they saw them in a film or series but don’t know what are they, or how are formed.
ReplyDeleteFor me is a topic very interesting because I like all around space however I never had investigated black holes in specific, but I know that is one of the things more studied about space because their formation is hard to understand also is difficult to understand the mass and the size that can have a black hole.
Also, I think is a very interesting topic for the different theories that exist around black holes, even if I think that not all are well substantiated or that don’t have enough information, for example, time travels, I think that are many theories that can be true.