Time is a concept that for a long time was thought to be untouchable. This was until black holes were discovered. These collections of matter hold the seemingly supernatural effect to alter time as we know it. A black hole is a star that has collapsed and become so dense that it creates a gravitational field strong enough that nothing, not even light, can escape. When a star dies it leaves behind a very dense remnant core. If the core’s mass is more than three times the mass of the sun, the force of gravity will then overpower the other forces, thus creating a black hole. It was in the 1700’s that John Michel and Pierre-Simon Laplace first considered the possibility of a gravitational field too strong for light to escape. Black holes were
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Shortly after the 2004 NASA Swift telescope was launched, it captured intense but quick flashes of light called gamma ray bursts, from the collision of two stars. By observing the event’s “afterglow”, astronomers realized that the large explosion was a black hole clashing into a neutron star, creating an even larger black hole. “Supermassive” black holes are billions of times larger than our sun. They are believed to be at the center of almost every galaxy, including our own. They are easily detected from their effects on nearby stars and gas, unlike most stellar black holes that are rarely found. Based on the amount of stars that are eligible to become a stellar black hole, scientists can estimate that there are as many as ten million to one billion black holes in our galaxy alone. The stellar black holes are a lot more common because it is easier for them to form. One possible way for the creation of these massive black holes involves a series of chain collisions in a compact clusters of stars. This results in the buildup of extremely massive black holes, which then collapse to form medium sized black holes. These then proceed to merge and create the supermassive black holes which can be millions to billions times larger than our sun …show more content…
If an astronaut were to go towards a black hole time would be much slower for them than somebody on Earth. Eventually they would reach the event horizon where time stands still. For this reason an outside observer will never really see the astronaut fall into the black hole (Temming, Maria) This happens because black holes are so massive they warp spacetime. Spacetime is a four dimensional combination of width, height, depth and time.(Spacetime, Relativity and Quantum
Shortly after the 2004 NASA Swift telescope was launched, it captured intense but quick flashes of light called gamma ray bursts, from the collision of two stars. By observing the event’s “afterglow”, astronomers realized that the large explosion was a black hole clashing into a neutron star, creating an even larger black hole. “Supermassive” black holes are billions of times larger than our sun. They are believed to be at the center of almost every galaxy, including our own. They are easily detected from their effects on nearby stars and gas, unlike most stellar black holes that are rarely found. Based on the amount of stars that are eligible to become a stellar black hole, scientists can estimate that there are as many as ten million to one billion black holes in our galaxy alone. The stellar black holes are a lot more common because it is easier for them to form. One possible way for the creation of these massive black holes involves a series of chain collisions in a compact clusters of stars. This results in the buildup of extremely massive black holes, which then collapse to form medium sized black holes. These then proceed to merge and create the supermassive black holes which can be millions to billions times larger than our sun …show more content…
If an astronaut were to go towards a black hole time would be much slower for them than somebody on Earth. Eventually they would reach the event horizon where time stands still. For this reason an outside observer will never really see the astronaut fall into the black hole (Temming, Maria) This happens because black holes are so massive they warp spacetime. Spacetime is a four dimensional combination of width, height, depth and time.(Spacetime, Relativity and Quantum