Black Hole?

Question

Please describe what exactly a black hole is and what we, humans, know about it so far. What creates it, and do you think we will ever have the capability to manufacture one?

Answer 1

A black hole is the term applied to a massive star that reaches the point where all of it's available fuel is used up. At that point the star collapses on itself, the resulting collision of its atomic components - atoms, atomic nuclei, electrons, neutons, protons, all collapsing on each other causes these particle to crush each other down to individual quarks and then these too are crushed down to a very very small space called a 'singularity' which is the size of the planc length but contains still all the mass of all the matter that collapsed and thus all the gravitational force of all that mass. Contrary to what others have posted here, black holes don't suck any more than any other gravitational body in the cosmos. They simply have a gravitational field around them that is no different in character than the gravitational field around any other body, it is simply larger and therefore has an escape velocity greater than the speed of light.

Answer 2

A black hole is simply a place from which light cannot escape.

Any mass has an escape speed. The bigger the mass the higher the escape speed. The smaller the body (more density), the higher the escape speed.

Escape speed at Earth's surface is 'only' 11.2 km/s (25,000 mph). Escape speed at the 'surface' of the Sun, the photosphere, is 617.5 km/s (1,389,400 mph).

This is still only a small portion of the speed of light (300,000 km/s = 187,500 mi/s = 675,000,000 mph)

However, if all the mass of the sun was in a body of only 3 km radius, then the escape speed at the surface of that body would be 300,000 km/s and nothing, not even light, could escape (hence the name: black hole).

We do not know of anything that could squeeze the sun down to that size. However, much bigger star, when they run out of fuel, would implode onto themselves and a central part could reach a high enough density to become a black hole (while the rest of the star is blown away in a supernova).

You can also have a black hole just by accumulating enough stuff in one place: astronomers suspect that the centre of each galaxy has a "super-massive" black hole.

Black holes do not suck everything around them. At a distance, gravity depends on total mass, not the content of the mass. If you were to replace the Sun by a black hole with exactly the same mass as the sun, our orbit would not change (however, we would freeze: no light = no heat). It does not matter if that black hole was made of old star matter or heavily compressed peanut butter. The force of gravity felt at Earth would be the same.

The first black holes we manufacture will probably be the size of an atom. They will probably evaporate in a short time (according to Hawking). Hopefully, we will learn enough from these to know if it is dangerous or not to try and make bigger ones.

Answer 3

When a star is formed from gasses, it begins as a dwarf star, and years and years it will continue to expand and change color from blue to red. Then, the star uses all of its fuel. When this happens, the star begins to collapse and compress the core. The pressure makes the core become extremely hot, so the core burns the remainder of the nuclear fuel. Eventually the rest of the fuel is consumed and the core is crushed under the mass of the entire star. From here, a black hole can be created, or under less volatile circumstances forma neutron star (supernova) or a white dwarf. Although in theory a black hole can be made from any amount of matter, scientists believe that only stars, much larger than our sun, dying create them. And I don't think we can manufacture one for it will suck everying thing in. It can suck up too, well, about to pluto all the way to the sun since black holes are bigger than the sun. And no light or air or basically anything is in it. So, theres my answer! Hope you enjoyed it!

Answer 4

Black holes are huge dead stars. They are the most massive objects in exsistance. To understand them you must look at einstien's theory below. But befor that, if you ask how matter escapes it well the theory is that if tooooo much mass ends up in the black hole it will explode. But i believe that it won't since i think black holes are openings to othe dimensions. see, einstiens theory states that the universe is a gridwork and all mass on it bends it a little. The higher the mass the more it bends. Black holes are to have soo much mass that it bends soooooooo deep. I believe that when it goes soooo deap it would have to puncture it. Humans will NEVER be able to manufacture one, it is a natural pheounomena.

Answer 5

well i am a science geek so.. a black hole is a well in the space time continum so its density is so great that its gavity is capable of sucking in matter. well if it is a well that streches space time fabric why dosn't extra item strech it so much tat it tears and throws the universe killing all of us? the answer is anti-matter. it vaporizes matter so that we won't die and yes jhon dalton said that couldn't happen look at his "atoms can't be cut" thing, yeah, idiot

we can manufacture black holes but it takes tons of energy. we need a colider that uses trillions of watts of energy. we use plasma to fire a proton and an anti-proton at e=mc sqared, instines theory of relativity, which is the speed of light times the speed of light. we can also turn this mini black hole into a mini universe with the proper distribution of gravity, it makes a mini big bang!!

any more qustions email me at [e-mail] and people think sevies are stupid

Answer 6

so basically a black hole is like a space vacuum. Due to its powerful gravitational field, it can suck everything around it: any kind of matter, including visible light. that sucked region of space becomes cut off from the rest of the universe – no matter or radiation, including visible light, that has entered the region can ever escape. black holes as presently understood are described by Einstein's theory of general relativity, developed in 1916. from what i read, it is possible to create a black hole but at a lower level (it won't suck the planet or anything)...

Answer 7

a black hole is an extremely dense object that is really about the size of a basketball. it just bends space and everything near it is pulled into the hole. black holes can be created by humans but any that we create would be really small. a star at the end of its life might implode and become a black hole and wander space forever. or it might have been created at the beginning of the universe. we know that there is usually a black hole at the center of every galaxy. this is logical because the black hole will pull matter to it but it might not actually go in. this makes the black hole dormant and the matter around the hole turns into suns and planets. occasionally the black hole in the center of the milky way "eats" some more matter but there is not enough to actually turn it on. if it does turn on the earth would be unharmed because we are on the outer fringes of the galaxy. when Andromeda and the MIlky Way collide in a couple billion years the black holes will collide and one of the black holes, the bigger one (andromedas), will "eat" our black hole and this wil create a super massive black hole which will create a supermassive galaxy because of the amount of matter that will go towards this hole. the only known thing to escape a black hole are gama rays which would destroy the earth in an instant if a sun exploded and its gama rays hit us.

Answer 8

Actually, CERN, the giant atom smasher in France, which is supposed to be completed this year, holds high hopes for being able to create microscopic black holes.

Answer 9

It's a singularity with infinite gravity, and infinite time inside! Can you imagine what that is like? It is created by the collapse of a neutron star! We can create anything our minds wish! It's just a matter of when and where!

Answer 10

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_hole
http://www.futurepundit.com/archives/001313.html