Black holes are one of the least understood phenomenons in the galaxy yet the secrets contained within the black hole could revolutionize the field of physics. Black holes are formed when an enormously massive star, most likely a neutron star, collapses in on itself. This happens because when the star dies all the energy generated from the sun's fusion reaction that was formerly pushing outward suddenly stops. When the outward force stops, the sun has so much mass that its own gravity collapses the star into a black hole. .
This only happens naturally with extremely massive stars because it needs enough force pulling inwards from the gravity to break the strong and weak forces in an atom. The mass can then compress to less than a millionth of its previous size because most of the space in an atom or molecule is empty. When this happens a singularity is formed, this is the incredible massive center of a black hole.
2. Schwarzschild Radius.
When a star collapses its mass determines what radius the black hole will have. This radius called the Schwarzschild radius and is given by:.
r=2GM/c2 (O"Neill, 138).
Where r is the Schwarzschild radius, G is the gravity on the surface of the star, M is the mass of the star, and c is the speed of light. As particles approach this radius they are accelerated toward the speed of light. Because of this phenomenon, even light that gets caught in the gravitational spiral of a black hole cannot escape. .
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3. Time Dilation.
This leads us into the idea of time dilation, the phenomenon that time appears to slow down as one approaches the speed of light in the outer spiral of a black hole. Relativity gives that as any object gets closer to the speed of light, time in their field of reference is the same but to anyone moving slower than them, their time appears to grow infinitely slow. That is, if a person where to go toward a black hole, when they entered the spiral particle cloud surrounding a black hole it would appear to a person on earth as if they were stopped.
