Into the Dark

A black hole devouring a neighboring star
Image Source: SPACE.com

You can’t see them but you know they’re there. Nothing can escape their grasps: not even light. They do not obey our current laws of physics. They are black holes.

Here on Earth, we beat the force of gravity every day. We can lift out legs, we can jump, and we can fly in planes. Now imagine taking the Earth and compressing it down to the size of a marble. As density increases, gravity also increases, and now that all of material on Earth is in a tiny dense packet, the new force of gravity becomes so powerful that nothing can escape, not even light. Scientists believe that black holes are formed by dying stars, or stars which have run out of fuel. The heat generated by nuclear fusion generates massive amounts of pressure, enough to keep the star stable; however once the star begins to cool, the pressure drops and the star begins to collapse in on itself creating a black hole.

At the center of every galaxy is a super massive black hole. Just as the planets of our solar system orbit the sun, all of the stars of a galaxy rotate around this black hole.

At the edge of every black hole is the event horizon, the point of no return, the border at which the gravity is just weak enough for light to escape.

Now what happens to all of the stuff that falls into a black hole? According to a fundamental law of modern physics, no information can be lost. So where does all of this stuff go? What happens if you watch your friend fall into a black hole? What happens if you yourself fall into a black hole?

Stray astronaut falling into a black hole
Image Source: goo.gl/qgTt9

The Answer:

If you are the unfortunate enough to fall into a black hole, you will painlessly cross the event horizon. As you do this, you will be able to see every single event that has ever happened in the universe; your life literally flashes before your eyes. Then, as you get closer to the center of the black hole, you feel yourself getting slowly pulled apart. Let’s just say the end isn’t very pretty.

Now if you are watching your friend fall into a black hole, don’t worry, you won’t see them get pulled into pieces. Instead something strange happens. Your friend starts moving very slowly, so slow that he or she is essentially not moving anymore. This happens because the light bouncing off your friend can no longer escape the black hole; it too slows then stops, freezing your friend at the event horizon.

From this scenario, we can deduce that all of the information sucked in by a black hole does not suddenly vanish. Instead it is plastered all over the event horizon. Just like your friend.