15 Facts About Black Holes That'll Blow Your Effing Mind
Black holes are something everyone has heard about, but few actually know anything about. They are like giant invisible blenders lurking in the corners of deep space, sucking in unsuspecting stars and planets and ripping them to shreds. We're only beginning to understand the secrets of deep space and the full capacity of these cosmic death traps.
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Black holes are one of the most interesting things about space. Like their event horizon, which is the point of no return situated at their swirling center, black holes are invisible. Nothing can escape their pull - not even light itself. But just because they’re surrounded by mystery doesn’t mean they’re always shrouded in darkness. Some black holes are so luminous they outshine Earth’s sun by the billions.
What is a black hole? Is it a secret doorway into alternate realities? Is it Mother Nature’s time machine? Does it destroy, create, or all of the above? Here are some crazy facts about black holes that will help you put these questions and more into perspective.
Every Black Hole Contains a Universe
If life were a run through Wonderland, the rabbit hole might just be a black hole, and here’s how deep it gets.
The theory of quantum gravity seems to suggest every black hole contains a new universe that stretches out beyond our own. This could mean that entering a black hole could be like opening a doorway and stepping into an alternate reality. That is, if you survived going through a black hole.
Our Universe Might Just Exist Inside Of a Black Hole
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Scientists have long played with the notion that our universe contains millions of black holes, invisible death traps spiraling around the atmosphere in space. But in modern times, a new concept has unearthed an even more mind-boggling possibility - our universe exists inside of a black hole. This popular theory opens up possibilities for things previously thought fictional, like time travel and parallel worlds, because if a black hole is a doorway rather than a deathtrap, we all stand to enter into a realm where the laws of nature no longer apply.
Black Holes Can Slow Down Time, Hypothetically Making Time Travel Possible
Because black holes are masters of distortion and the universe at large, they don’t obey the natural laws of time. They are surrounded by approximately 15 million miles of darkness and their mass consequently slows down time in a process known as time dilation. This process concludes that traveling faster makes time move slower. Could it be the key to time travel isn’t in an actual vessel but rather through a hole? Stephen Hawking and several other geniuses seem to think so.
They Are Considered the Single Most Deadly Force in the Entire Universe
Black holes don’t just give birth to universes, they also swallow them whole. If one were to come into contact with our planet, all weapons of mass destruction combined would not be able to compete with the phenomenon that would inevitably follow. In fact, literally nothing we’ve ever seen is comparable to the deadly force of a black hole. Upon contact (and by contact we mean coming within about a billion miles of these things) our solar system would simply spin out of control and we would all be ripped to shreds. Scientists call this spaghettification.
They Can Turn You into Spaghetti (Sort Of)
Spaghettification is a made up word describing what black holes do to anything within a billion mile radius. When a black hole spaghettifies something (or someone) it stretches them to death using horizontal compression and extreme tidal force.
This agonizing routine could go on for a very long time, depending mainly on the size of the black hole itself. But why spaghetti? Because when a mass comes into contact with a black hole, it compresses everything into noodle-like shapes. Sometimes this is also called the noodle effect.
They Will Erase You From Existence
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Should you, for any given reason, get sucked in by a black hole, you will not be spit back out. You will simply vanish without a trace. It will be as if you never existed. This is because nothing can enter into a black hole and exit unless, of course it exits out the other side, alive and intact. And even then, theoretically you'd be in another universe, so you would never be heard from again. Let’s say that were the case for a person.
They would still disappear as the black hole dissolves, shrinking down into an unfathomable, astronomical smallness.
The Largest Black Hole We've Discovered Is 12 Billion Times Larger than Earth's Sun
The 2015 discovery of SDSS J010013.02+280225.8 (a doomsday name if ever there was one) turned science on its heels yet again. This cosmic mystery of a black hole is so colossal that even the most sophisticated mathematicians are baffled by its size especially when compared to its approximated age. To put things into perspective, this hole is thought to be just shy of 13 billion years old, and is 12 billion times larger than the sun. The sun's radius is 432,288 miles, which means this black hole is...well, it's huge.
The Super Massive Black Hole Burns 429 Trillion Times Brighter Than Our Sun
Talk about shedding some light on an ancient illuminated space component. This revelation is unique and interesting because black holes are often associated with darkness, but in fact some of them are quite luminous. This newly discovered black hole is the brightest massive quasar we have ever witnessed. Any bulb that bright is bound to pose ominous threats to all existence - human and other.
A Black Hole Could Fry Earth At the Speed of Light
In the event that we (as in everyone on Earth) inadvertently got sucked into a black hole, we might not actually notice this at first. The initial effect could, hypothetically, be as subtle as a change in tides, a shift in the stars and a strange, off kilter sensation but then we’d be fried up pretty quickly by the radiation at a pace exceeding the speed of light.
The Smallest Black Hole We've Found Can Rip Winds out at 20 Million Miles per Hour
Don’t be deceived into believing the power of a black hole lies solely in its size. IGR J17091-3624 is one of the tiniest black holes spinning through the cosmos, yet its wind power outnumbers that of larger black holes by a force 10 times the highest observed velocity. This tiny stellar mass is situated right here in our Milky Way - and here’s something you don’t hear every day about a black hole. - we know it’s alive because it has a heartbeat.
The Way They Are Made Is Absolutely Mind Blowing
Super massive black holes are thought to have developed during the primitive stages of creation. Some of them are probably billions of years old. Younger black holes are born when stars die. In fact, they are created out of pieces of stars when they are alive. Black holes live and die, like humans, animals and plants, but the legacy they leave behind is unparalleled. They create and destroy, yet they too are created and eventually destroyed.
Basically, when a stars center implodes on itself, it creates a supernova. That supernova is a huge explosion that blasts into outer space, creating a massive pull so intense that even light can't get out. Because these things are so huge, they essentially suck in everything in and squeeze it in really tight - and this is where a black hole is born.
Black Holes Eat Everything, Including Each Other
Somewhere amidst the drifting stars and shifting particles of space, one massive black hole eats another. This effect is known as merging galaxies and it’s a new revelation to astrophysicists and the scientific community at large. It’s worth noting the black hole that got consumed was the largest in the spiral galaxy we were observing called NGC3393.
Not Only Do They Suck In Matter but They Also Spit It Out At Accelerated, Fatal Speeds
Just 28,000 light years from our planet, a black hole labeled H1743-322 is hurling cosmic bullets into space at lighting speeds. As we know, black holes suck in matter, functioning like interstellar vacuum cleaners or super space magnets if you will. But some of the matter they suck in gets spit back out and the end result is a shower of fragmented planets spiraling aimless through space posing all sorts of threats of possible collision but capturing our attention throughout the journey.
These Mystifying Wonders Can Distort Even Space Itself
Not only do black holes slow down time, they also distort space and everything surrounding them for billions of light years. They have been described as putting dents in the space time continuum. They have been suspected of folding and later collapsing universes whole. The full effect of these abilities is still immeasurable.
Rogue Black Holes Are Like Rogue Waves, But Scarier and One of Them Just Broke Way
Rogue black holes are the most obvious threat to civilization due to their sheer unpredictability. Prior to their discovery, black holes were presumed stationary. In March 2017, NASA’s Hubble Telescope observed a rogue black hole leaving galaxy 3c 186 at a speed of 5 million miles per hour. According to AOL News, at this alarmingly fast pace, the rogue hole could travel back and forth between Earth and the moon in under three minutes' time.