Where does Matter go when it enters a black hole?

Answer 1

Well in my astronomy class we learned of a concept where matter that is sucked into a black hole is turned into gravitational energy which occur as a wave in the fabric of space time. In theory as this process continues the black hole would eventually "evaporate." There is another theory which states that all matter that is sucked into a black hole is spit out of something which is refered to as a "white hole." What's important to know is that a black hole is not necesarily a worm hole. If you try to fly into a black hole feet first the physics of the black hole would cause your feet to accelerate faster than your head and you would be ripped apart.

Answer 2

When any matter gets pulled into a black hole, it will eventually impact onto the singularity at the center. Singularity? what is this? Read on...

Black holes are regions of space where the effects of gravity have run wild. They are the ultimate one way trap, fall in to one and you will never get back out.

1) The accretion disk and polar emission jets

These are only present when a black hole is feeding on matter. The accretion disk is a flat plane of matter that surrounds the hole's equator and consists of matter that is in the process of being consumed. Unlike the black hole itself, the disk is incredibly bright - millions of degrees and radiates most of its energy as X-rays. The high temperatures are caused by the friction in the matter as it is pulled in and torn apart at velocities approaching the speed of light. The polar emission jets are long beams of particles that blaze away from the poles of the black hole at a large fraction of the speed of light. The exact mechanism is not fully understood but the rotation of the hole and its magnetic field are involved.


2) The event horizon

The event horizon is effectively the surface of the black hole. Anything falling past the event horizon (matter or light) cannot get back out. The horizon is not a solid surface, it is merely a region of space around the singularity where the escape velocity is the speed of light. That is why a black hole is black - no light can escape from inside. A rotating black hole also has a second event horizon which lies outside the first. The second horizon is called the ergosphere and is a region where spacetime itself is dragged around the hole by its rotation. This zone is not truly an event horizon in the same way as the 1st one, as matter and light can escape from it. However, matter and light within this zone will not be able to resist being dragged around the hole as the fabric of spacetime itself is being dragged. Weird huh?

3) The singularity

The singularity is where all the mass of the black hole resides. It may hard the grasp but the singularity is not a solid object, it is an infinitely small, infinitely dense region of space time where the curvature of space is infinite!

In English, this means that all the matter and light that the black hole has ever swallowed is crushed into this region, and this region is the source of the black hole's gravity. In a non-rotating hole, the singularity is just that - a point. In a rotating black hole, the point is actually a ring, the width being determined by speed of rotation of the hole.

Answer 3

The answer to that question has haunted scientists since Chandrakasar first posited the existence of black holes. It was thought for a long time that the matter eventually (whatever THAT word means in the space/time conditions of a singularity) fountains back out into the universe in the form of quasars. It is also possible that the matter simply enters a new dimensional phase... a new universe if you will.

As the matter goes through whatever transformation occurs at the Scharzchild Radius (event horizon) x-rays are emitted away from the black hole, so it is thought that there is somekind of measurable change of state right at this threshhold.

I doubt that we will have any accurate way to test these hypotheses for quite some time.

Answer 4

One current theory states that matter goes no where as long as the black hole exists. In the process of crossing the event horizon, the extreme difference in tidal (gravitational) force between the side of the object/material facing toward the black hole and the side facing away from the black hole would pull the object/material apart into its sub-atomic components. The original object/material would then cease to exist at that point. If and when the black hole "evaporates" as Dr. Stephen Hawking claims, the matter would be released back into space in its new, totally disorganized, state.

Answer 5

What is a black hole. There is no hole as the name implies. It is a concentrated huge mass. The gravity is proportional to the mass. SO it is so huge. If a mass is sucked in ( may be a galaxy or whatever) it adds to the existing mass of the black hole and increases the pull even more. Things do happen that way. When Galaxies merge some mass end up in the black hole making the black holes even bigger.

Answer 6

matter gets compressed by the intense gravitational force inside the event horizon (the outer-most part of the black hole that has a gravitational pull). at the center of the black hole the matter gets compressed with all the other matter taken in, and eventually when it becomes too great, the black hole emits the energy in a spectacular event known as a quasar. it looks like a 2 huge streams of light being shot out in opposite directions, that is where the energy previously contained in the matter goes in the end.

Answer 7

When matter goes into a black hole it is destroyed. Sort of. It is turned into energy and then that energy is sucked out of this Universe into the parralell universe, the Yang one. Where everything is well backwards, red=green, white=black, everything is upside down. There are also black holes in that universe (or rather white holes) that suck the negative matter (or energy) out of that universe into this one. Of course don't think that its a great source of transportation cause, #1 you'll definetly die if you try, and #2 we don't know what would happen when you die, because nobody's visited from the void before. #3 if you did live you would live a completly reversed life from where you left off.


Thats what I think, otherwise there is no proof.

Answer 8

It becomes part of the black hole (the singularity). Black holes do not lead to white holes...they are not entrances to wormholes. They are just big massive objects in a very small space. Anything that gets sucked in is crushed (actually, the atoms themselves are torn apart) and stays there.

Far too many people get their "facts" about black holes from science fiction and kooks who know very little about them.

Answer 9

Good question... According to Stephen Hawking, Alot of it does come back out, (according to Hawking Radiation), because of the splitting of atoms inside of the Event Horizon which release neutrinos and such which do have enough energy to make it back outside of the Event Horizon. This, in one theory, is why Black holes dissipate after a period of time.

Answer 10

I don't know, why dont you go build a space ship and find out, you will most probably get crushed to death, but at least you will prove the theory to be correct in the process and go down as the biggest numpty since steven hawkings said he would finish einsteins work in making a theory of everything.