Supermassive black holes (millions or even billions of solar masses in size) are thought to form at the same time as the galaxy they inhabit is formed and are predicted by Einstein's General Theory of Relativity. There may be thousands of these stellar-mass black holes within our own galaxy. If this mass collapses into an infinitely small point, a black hole is born-many times the mass of our own sun. Stellar black holes (about the mass of 20 of our Suns or more) are created when massive stars collapse in on themselves.
Artistic impression of a black hole, Source: Cappan/iStock Needless to say, there is little consensus in the field over these types of enigmatic black holes. Others believe that, if they do indeed exist, they would form from the collapse of stars with masses equal to hundreds of thousands of solar masses (one solar mass is equal to the mass of our own Sun, or 1.989 × 10 30 kg). Some scientists believe that intermediate black holes form from a merging of miniature black holes. This type of black hole would have several hundred of thousands of solar masses, rather than millions, or even billions of solar masses, like their larger cousins. Like miniature black holes, intermediate black holes are only really theoretical. These tiny black holes are, to date, purely theoretical, and it is theorized that most of them may have already evaporated. These tiny black holes are thought to have masses of hundreds of solar masses or less. To date, scientists have managed to define at least four different kinds of black holes:Ĭurrent theories suggest that small, or miniature, black holes (some as small as an atom) probably formed in the earliest moments of the universe. How black holes form depends on their type and origin. Source: Kristof Wesely/Wikimedia Commons How are black holes made of, and what different kinds of them are there? Black holes can, however, be "seen" with some special analysis of data collected from a wide range of telescopes (more on this later). The gravity is so strong because matter has been squeezed into a tiny space."Īs light is unable to escape the black hole's gravity, it appears completely black - hence the name. What is the definition of a black hole?īlack holes can be defined, according to NASA, as " a place in space where gravity pulls so much that even light cannot get out. If this would happen a black hole would connect to another extremely far away causing a quantum time disperstion effect allowing any spacecraft or matter to theoretically pass through it.Let's see what, if anything, they've managed to learn about the "Great Devourers" of the cosmos. It is theorized that black holes may connect to form a wormhole. Wormholes are ways to time travels and travel faster than light Stellar-mass black holes are the most common black holes in the universe. The source of a black hole's immense gravity is the fact that it is extremely massive, yet infinitely small giving it an extremely high density. It has been hypothesised that black holes radiate energy due to quantum mechanical effects known as Hawking radiation. The existence of black holes in the universe is well supported by astronomical observation, particularly from studying X-ray emission from X-ray binaries and active galactic nuclei. The geometry of space-time is distorted in a way that makes moving closer to the central singularity inevitable no matter how the infalling object moves. At the center of a black hole is the singularity, a point of zero size and infinite density.
Under the description provided by general relativity, as an object moves closer to a black hole, the energy required for it to escape continues to increase until it becomes infinite at the event horizon, the surface beyond which escape is impossible. Black holes are predicted by general relativity. A Black Hole sucking light with its gravityĪ black hole is a concentration of mass whose gravitational field is so strong that no mass or light can escape it.īlack holes form when a star more than ten times the size of the Sun explodes or a giant clump of mass comes together and forms to a black hole.