To Stretch or Not to Stretch?
This unusual name refers to what happens to an object stretched by tidal forces falling into a black hole.
What is: Spaghettification
True or False: You can see a black hole with a f/6 dobsonian telescope
False. We cannot see a black hole, only the effects they have on surrounding objects. A black hole is called a black hole because of it’s color, especially since light can’t escape. What we can see, though, is the effects of a black hole. Analyzing the surrounding area of a black hole, we can see its effects upon its environment
These are the smallest of black holes and range from an atom’s size to a mountain’s mass.
Primordial Black holes
Gases swirling closely around black holes glow incredibly bright due to this type of heating mechanism
What is: Friction/Viscosity?
The rate clocks tick slows closer to a black hole due to this dilation effect.
What is time dilation?
Spaghettification occurs due to extreme differences in this across an object falling toward a black hole.
What is: Gravitational force
True or false: Our galaxy (the Milky Way) has a black hole in the center of it?
True! But, don’t be alarmed, Earth isn’t in danger! The major black hole that astronomists believe to be within our Milky Way is light years away from Earth.
These are the most common of black holes and they can be up to 20 times more massive than the Sun. There are also a variety of these all over the Milky Way.
Stellar Black Holes
Stellar black holes form when the cores of very massive stars collapse at the end of their life cycle. They typically have masses ranging from about 5 to several tens of times the mass of our Sun.
The boundary of a black hole where gravity is so strong even light can't escape is called this horizon.
What is: The Event Horizon
Due to mass compressing into an infinitesimally small area, black holes have essentially infinite amounts of this.
What is: Density
Spaghettification that stretched objects apart happens due to varying levels of this over small distances.
What are: Tidal forces
True or False: Black holes can be created from the remnants of exploded stars
True (from supernovae)
These are the largest of black holes, being more than 1 million times more massive than the Sun.
Supermassive Black Holes
This occurs when a star passes too close to a black hole and faces spaghettification by tidal forces.
What is A tidal disruption event
Energy around a black hole in our universe experiences this gravitational time dilation and redshift as seen in the movie "Interstellar".
What is: Gravitational dragging
Spaghettification happens most severely with this type of small, stellar-mass black hole versus a supermassive one.
What are: Primodial black holes
True or False: Radiating energy, black holes eventually evaporate over incredibly short time periods.
False - Hawking radiation causes black holes to lose mass but the evaporation process takes longer than the current age of the universe.
This largest known black hole, TON 618, has a mass 66 billion times that of the Sun.
What is a Supermassive Black Hole
What name is given to the point of infinitely dense matter within a black hole where spacetime breaks down?
What is: A singularity
This rapid spinning of a black hole powers jets of energetic particles and released gravitational energy.
What is: Rotational energy
These long thin structures astronomers see ejected from galaxies may come from stars spaghettified by central black holes.
What are: Relativistic jets
True or False: Black holes bend space and time to such an extent that not even light can escape
True! A black hole's gravity is so strong that not even light can escape once it crosses the event horizon boundary. This one-way space-time barrier traps everything including light rays.
This type of black hole features two very close orbiting stellar black holes spiraling into each other.
What is: A binary black hole?
Some black holes naturally occur in pairs within binary star systems. These binary black hole systems emit intense gravitational waves as the two components rotate ever faster and closer over cosmic timescales.
What effect enables us to potentially see the shadow of the black hole M87's event horizon?
What is Gravitational lensing; light orbits closely around the black hole which refracts it to cast a central shadow.
What theory pioneered by Einstein explains extreme gravity effects like black hole jets and gravitational waves?
What is: General relativity