Monday, October 27, 2008

The Facts About Black Holes

Black holes are incredible phenomenon and while most are thousands upon thousands of light years away from Earth, we can easily find them in a whole host of movies, TV shows, books, etc. If you are fascinated by black holes, you should definitely visit the Smithsonian Magazine site to read the current article on the subject.


What is a Black Hole?
For those that are not that familiar with black holes, these phenomenons are extremely interesting and incredibly powerful. In fact, their true power is very difficult to comprehend, because they border on the most powerful forces in the universe. Black holes were once stars- similar to our sun. These stars burnt up all of their fuel and are no longer able to complete nuclear reactions. Stars in this phase can no longer push out energy and since stars have their own gravity and are extremely dense, they start to push inwards onto themselves- forcing the star to implode.


Creating an Immense Force
When a star implodes onto itself, an amazing amount of gravitational force creates an incredibly dense object. This once super large star- usually much bigger than our sun is now extremely small-perhaps even smaller than our planet and this denseness creates incredible forces of gravity. As a particle becomes so dense, the gravitational force also becomes stronger. This is why black holes have tremendous pull on objects surrounding it. In fact, the gravitational pull of a black hole is so intense that nothing near it can escape- even light. Since light can’t escape the gravitation pull, the black hole now seems like a black void from far away- hence the name black hole.


Where are Black Holes Located?
Black holes in theory have been known for a little more than 200 years and while it has only been recently that scientists and astronomers could physically see black holes with telescopes much research has been done on this phenomenon. Black holes can be found throughout our universe and while for a long time it was believed that our galaxy was home to a black hole, the evidence to support this theory only recently became available.


Read More About Black Holes
If you are fascinated about black holes, you will find the article at Smithsonian Magazine extremely interesting. Whether you are a sci-fi fan or love astronomy, there is plenty to learn about black holes. To read the article about black holes please visit our main website at the following link: http://www.smithsonianmag.com


Cleopatra, Forbidden City, Black Holes, Diane Arbus

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