Black hole

The universe, unlike what people generally would like to believe, is not that friendly. It is filled with
bizarre and the most alien things possible. The huge masses of rocks hurling faster than the fastest train
on earth, the scorching radiations from the stars that we dont generally feel, thanks to the atmospheric
shield, and the low pressure of the space trying to burst open all your veins.
Above all there is the black hole the monster of all monsters.
Dont let the name fool you: Black hole is anything but empty space. Black holes are these terrifying
dense entities scattered over the universe that mercilessly grip on everything they can get their hands
on. They pull specks of dust, small rocks, asteroids, planets, and even gigantic stars, and dont let any of
them escape their grip. To get the sense of how strong black holes hold on to their prey, get this, even
light cant escape them once entered. Thats why they are called black holes we cannot see them.
So, how do we know they are there? We deduce them by detecting their effect on nearby bodies. Its
like looking out of a window and seeing all the tree-tops bent in one direction, and inferring that a
strong wind must be blowing in that direction. When particles from nearby bodies are pulled towards a
black hole, the friction results in emit of x-rays. An accretion disk is formed which is detected using x-ray
detectors on earth.

Figure 1 - Gas Jet coming striking off an accretion disk.

A phenomenon known as gravitational lensing can also tell us about the black holes presence. If a
distant galaxy and a black hole are lined up, we see a distorted image of the distant galaxy as if
something in the space were bending the rays coming from the galaxy, like a lens. Einsteins General
Theory of Relativity suggests that a massive object can wrap the space-time fabric so as to bend the light
rays passing through it. So, we conclude that, something massive, which we cannot detect using any of
our conventional means, must be out there in the darkness of the space.
Black holes appear to exist in two radically different size scales. Stellar-mass-black-holes are generally
10-24 times the mass of the sun and are peppered throughout the universe, while supermassive-blackholes are millions, or even billions, of times as massive as the sun, and lie at the center of virtually all
galaxies including our Milky Way.
How come these destructive giants are wandering in our universe? When massive stars die, they leave
behind a dense remnant core. If the remnant core is about 10 solar mass, the core collapses under its
own gravity to a single point: singularity the innermost part of a black hole. (The outermost part is
called the event horizon.) This dense core has a gravity high enough to not even let light escape its
bound. Thus, a black hole is formed.
One thing to be clear about is that black holes have no more vacuuming power than a normal star of the
same mass. For instance, if the sun were to instantly convert into a black hole, the earth would go cold,
but wouldnt budge from its orbit.
Black holes dont only affect space, but time too. Black holes, with their incredible gravitational pull, are
basically time machines. Get on a rocket, travel to Sgr A* (See Figure 2), ease extremely close to the
event horizon, but dont cross it. For every minute you spend there, a thousand years will pass on Earth.
Its hard to believe, but thats what happens. Gravity trumps time.

Figure 2 - Sgr A* black hole

In a sense, our universe is a black hole too. Think about a two dimensional world a world on a surface
of a sphere. The light beam in that universe would never know the up-direction. The light beam would
never leave the surface of the sphere, essentially being trapped in that dimension. This property not
allowing light escape its bound is of a black hole.
The final point in a black hole singularity is also proposed to be the seed to a new universe. Our
universe is believed to be formed by a violent explosion of an infinitely small point the phenomenon
known as Big Bang. It is proposed that multiple such universes may exist, and singularities can be what
explodes to form all the matter in that new universe.
General relativity theory predicts, that nothing would happen when you reach the event horizon. You
just pass through, unaware that youre now lost to the rest of the universe. Youre fine. Your watch on
your wrist ticks along as usual. Though you would be frozen at the horizon for the observers outside the
black hole. Its often said that black holes are infinitely deep, but this is not true. There is a bottom. You
wont live to see it. Gravity, as you fall, will grow stronger. The pull on your feet, if youre falling feet
first, will be so much greater than the tug on your head that youll be stretched until youre ripped apart
you will be spaghettified.
Besides what we said about the ferocity of black holes, there is still a chance that they could be ruthless.
Samir Mathur, professor of physics at The Ohio State University and black hole sympathizer, thinks that
black holes aren't the ruthless, all-consuming mega-behemoths that we've made them out to be. He
proposed the fuzz ball theory for black holes, which is based on the string theory and suggests that the
event horizon is not rigidly defined, but is fuzzy, and when you reach the horizon, nothing would happen
to you, rather a hologram replica of you would be created and would be sent inside the black hole.
So, we may say that black holes are the terrifying all-swallowing entities wandering in our universe,
which may be the mother of other multiple universes.