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Meeting Black Holes
Black holes are regions of spacetime where gravity is so intense that nothing, not even light, can escape their gravitational pull.
Click on the black hole for a panoramic view!
Common Questions about Black Holes
Black holes can form from the collapse of massive stars or through the merging of smaller black holes, creating objects of immense density and power.
Black holes can form from the collapse of massive stars or through the merging of smaller black holes, creating objects of immense density and power.
Black holes can form from the collapse of massive stars or through the merging of smaller black holes, creating objects of immense density and power.
Formed from the remnants of massive stars, these black holes have masses ranging from a few times that of the Sun to several tens of solar masses.
Black holes can form from the collapse of massive stars or through the merging of smaller black holes, creating objects of immense density and power.
In 2016, scientists made history by detecting gravitational waves—ripples in spacetime—emanating from the merger of two black holes over a billion light-years away. This groundbreaking discovery confirmed a key prediction of Einstein's theory of general relativity and opened a new era of gravitational wave astronomy.
Black holes can form from the collapse of massive stars or through the merging of smaller black holes, creating objects of immense density and power.
Found at the centers of galaxies, supermassive black holes contain millions to billions of times the mass of the Sun.
Black holes can form from the collapse of massive stars or through the merging of smaller black holes, creating objects of immense density and power.
In 2019, the Event Horizon Telescope collaboration unveiled the first-ever image of a black hole's event horizon—a boundary beyond which nothing can escape the black hole's gravitational pull. This historic achievement provided direct visual evidence of the existence of black holes and offered insights into their structure and behavior.
Black holes can form from the collapse of massive stars or through the merging of smaller black holes, creating objects of immense density and power.
Check out the tools and formulas we use to study black holes!
Follow along for a great experiment on Black Holes to do at home!
Black Holes in the News!
"This artist’s illustration depicts the findings of a new study about the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy called Sagittarius A* (abbreviated as Sgr A*). "
"The most powerful events in the known universe – gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) – are short-lived outbursts of the highest-energy light. They can erupt with a quintillion (a 10 followed by 18 zeros) times the luminosity of our Sun. Now thought to announce the births of new black holes, they were discovered by accident."