10 Mind-Blowing Facts About Black Holes

10 Mind-Blowing Facts About Black Holes

 

Here are 10 interesting facts about black holes

1. It was John Mitchell who actually first proposed the idea of ‘dark stars’ or object. Later, in 20th century the term ‘black hole’ was coined.

2. Black holes are actually leftovers of former stars and are so dense that nothing can flee from their dominant gravitational energy. 

3. If the formation of a black hole has taken place, it can continue to grow by absorbing additional matter.

4. Generally the life cycle of most of the stars end up being a white dwarf or a neutron star, but, black holes are considered to be the last evolutionary stage in the lifetime of a star.

5. There are mainly three types of black holes namely stellar, super massive and miniature black holes, depending on their mass.

6. Since black holes possess strong gravitational force which pulls all of the light into its center, they cannot be seen.

7. Black holes follow the laws of gravity and hence in order to affect the earth, the orbit of a black hole would have to be very close to the solar system, which is not likely.

8. Astronomers are confident that our own Milky Way galaxy has a super massive black hole at its center.

9.Black holes have to hold a massive amount of mass in an incredibly small space to have the required gravity to pull light in. For example, to make a black hole with the mass of Earth, the entire planet would need to be squeezed down to a space 9 millimeters across.

10.When anything (be it planets, suns, galaxies or particles of light) passes close to a black hole, they will be pulled in by its gravity. If something else acting on the object, like say a rocket, is stronger than the black hole's gravity, it can escape the pull.