![]() See any events that happen inside of it, since their light would never reach “event horizon.” It’s a horizon because you can’t see past it. The region of space corresponding to the Schwarzschild radius is called the Just as water being pulled toward the drain is minimal far from the drain. TheĮffects of gravity pulling on space diminish with distance from the singularity Pulled in they could orbit the black hole just as planets orbit the sun. Objects much farther away than the Schwarzschild radius do not get It would be like salmon trying to swim upstream, but not making any Light that is aimed away from a black hole would be stationary at the Schwarzschild Same speed away from the water that the water is flowing toward the drain. It would be stationary because it moves at the Imagine a motorboat trying to escapeīy aiming away from the drain. The black hole at the speed of light (c). In a black hole, this distance isĬalled the “Schwarzschild radius”-it’s the place where space is falling into Of light, which we denote by the symbol c. Words, at this radius the water (symbolizing “space”) is moving at the speed Same speed as the motorboats (which represent particles of light). The drain representsĪt some small distance away from the drain, the water would be moving at the Water near the center would rapidly move toward the drain. Water near the edge of the lake would be essentially unaffected. Imagine we pull out a giant cork in the middle of the lake and the water begins To illustrate the physics of a black hole, let’s return to our lake analogy. So all the “substance” of a black hole is in the singularity. Is so strong that all the mass of the “star” becomes crushed into a point calledĪ singularity. Mass of a black hole has essentially no size at all. As one example, unlike Michell’s conception, the actual Black Holes or Dark Stars?īlack holes are similar in many respects to the “dark stars” predicted by Michell,īut there are some differences because our understanding of physics has improved Since space itself is pulled by gravity, modern physics indicates that it is indeed possible to have a gravitational field so 3 Although they may seem counterintuitive,īlack holes are a real phenomenon. This is a “black hole”-a term coinedīy physicist John Wheeler in 1967. And since nothingĬan travel through space faster than light, nothing would be able to escapeįrom such a powerful gravitational field. Space would be moving so fast) that light itself cannot escape. That it is indeed possible to have a gravitational field so strong (and thus, Since space itself is pulled by gravity, modern physics indicates We can have some confidence that gravity really does bend space and time asĮinstein claimed. This effect is merely one of several verifications of Einstein’s physics so There is a point at which light “stops” because it is traveling outward at the same speed space is pulled inward (called the event horizon). Gravity is so strong near a black hole that it pulls space inward faster than light can travel away. But the bending of light by gravity has been detected in space. ![]() Light here on earth because earth’s gravity is very weak compared to the speed ![]() We don’t notice the effect of gravity bending Similarly, gravity bends the path of light because light travels through space,Īnd space is “moved” by gravity. But the path of those motorboats is affected if the water is moving. Like light in empty space, these motorboats always travel at the same That have their throttle stuck open at a certain speed (see illustration below). In our analogy, photons (particles of light) can be represented by fast motorboats In our analogy, this means the water itself is flowing,Īs on a river, and the boats just “go along for the ride.” 2 They would moveĮven if there were no wind, because the water itself carries them along. But Einstein suggested that gravity is an effect, not on matterīut on space itself. Just as a sailboat moves along a flowing river even if there are no external forces, space itself moves matter.īefore Einstein, gravity was thought to be like the wind-an external forceĪcting on matter. ![]()
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