light speed and black holes?

Question

if its impossible for anything to move faster than the speed of light then how can a black hole suck in light? anything entering a black holes pull must be moving faster than light or we would be able to see it

Answer 1

No - speed has nothing to do with it.

Einstein showed that gravity can distort light and this has subsequently been proved by looking at the light from a star as it comes around the horizon of the Sun. The light from the star does indeed get distorted by the gravity of the Sun.

A black hole is so dense and massive that it's gravity pulls light in and does not let it escape. There is no need for light to be travelling any faster or slower as part of this mechanism.

Answer 2

To point it out clearly one more time: the local speed of light is the same everywhere. That includes a volume element 1um away from the event horizon of a black hole.

However, a black hole is a potential well and the effective potential at its event horizon is infinite. All light emitted at the event horizon will therefor be red-shifted to zero energy and can never escape.

But this is a simplified picture, of course. In reality what happens is that the observers local light cone gets squashed and turns around. So once you are below the even horizon, your future always lies towards the singularity. At the event horizon your future does not lie outside of the event horizon any more. And slightly above the even horizon your future is pretty small and only lies above the event horizon if you can shed some (a lot) of their mass-energy in an attempt to escape. Everyone else is already in an elevator going down.

Answer 3

The black hole maybe be able to pull light into it, but the objects it pulls in doesn't travel faster than light when it gets sucked into the black hole.

We can't see these objects getting pulled into the black hole because the light from these objects is also being pulled into the black hole making the objects being pulled into the black hole invisible.

The black hole can suck in light due to its extreme gravitional field - gravity isn't particles pulling other particles in, it is like dips in the spacetime continuum which everything material creates and black holes create an exceptionally deep dip which light can't jump across if close enough. If it isn't close enough to be sucked in directly then it goes into orbit - think of a basketball, if it hits the rim then it can spin inwards or fly off in another direction and direct hits go straight in.

As for light, it stays the same speed too, it doesn't get suddenly pulled in but if it is close enough then it starts orbiting the black hole and eventually gets pulled in. If light is far enough away then it doesn't get pulled into orbit or directly in but just gets bent and carries on - like a basketball spinning on the rim and then flying off somewhere else. It's not like everything everywhere gets sucked in by the black hole, it has its restrictions too so objects don't fall into it faster than light.

As for inside the black hole, we don't know yet and things may go faster than light there although there is no space, all laws of physics get broken down at the singularity so anything can happen.

Answer 4

Light does not get sucked into a black hole, light has no mass, it merely follows the curved space created by the great mass of the black hole and it circles in the event horizon, never to escape, that is why we can't see a black hole. Evidence of a black hole can be observed by X rays generated as gas is pulled from a nearby star, these X rays are at an angle to the black hole that permits them to avoid the curved space of the event horizon and travel, unimpeded, through space to an observer. There is no mystery here.

Answer 5

Let's adjust our minds, for a moment, to think of gravity as being, in essence, the counter force of radiation, where gravity is 'produced' at every radiative event, and both forces are inextricably conjoined, but in opposition. Then, when light is being 'sucked in' by the overpowering of the gravitational force over the radiative force, which is radiating at light speed, gravity is pulling it backwards, against the radiative force.
A cartoon image would be of a worm who's will to move forward has not overcome a stonger force that's pulling it back into its hole. A spagetti effect is created where its body is stretched to its limit, until the worm succumbs to the backward force, down the hole.
Wouldn't that effect be taking place at a speed that is faster than light (light-speed being the worm moving forward), and therefore backwards in time?
Seems likely to me.

Answer 6

You have a tiny misconception about what happens as light is pulled into a black hole. Nothing can travel faster than light, and that's final. Objects being pulled into a black hole do accelerate, but not past c. Light itself doesn't change speed, it just gets bent into the black hole. I hope that helps clear things up for you.

Answer 7

You missed it all. The collapsing of the sun in the center of a galaxy by the small power of gravity is capable of creating the energy to creat a black hole. They have Sean black holes consume a sun . Once u see it pass the event horizon u can not see it again.

Answer 8

I don't follow your logic. Gravity is a distortion in space. The gravity of a black hole is so intense that it pretty much rips a hole in space that light falls into as well as anything else.