What are black holes?

Our universe consists of infinite stars, planets and many other space objects. It is full of mystery. There are discoveries every day. The black hole was actually found in 1916 by Karl Schwarzschild. He gave the solution of general relativity to prove the existence of the black hole. The black holes and other discoveries associated with them took place in the golden period when David Finkelstein in 1958 proved the theory that nothing can escape from a black hole.  

What exactly is a black hole?

The black hole is a fascinating phenomenon in spacetime. It is a place in the universe that has an immense gravitational force. The gravitational pull is so powerful that the surrounding matter just falls into it. The matter surrounding it or coming in contact with it eventually gets squeezed in. After the black hole absorbs everything, the star dies. It does not even let light pass through it. Therefore, even light cannot escape black holes.

How were black holes found? The theory.

As mentioned earlier, black holes were predicted using Einstein’s theory of relativity. It was observed that when a star dies, it leaves a small core behind. This core is dense in nature. Its mass is approximately thrice the mass of the sun. The core has a strong gravitational force which swallows everything surrounding it. This is why it is named a black hole.

How to detect a black hole?

It is not easy to detect a black hole. When the black hole is absorbing a star there are several changes in its nature. These specific changes in the stars help us detect the black hole. Using specific tools black holes are observed. These tools use the property of the black hole’s gravitational effect on the luminous matter to detect its presence. Recently, NASA has noticed that when a star falls into the black hole, there is massive emission of gamma radiation, luminous matter and energy. The observations have also shown that due to excessive energy being dispersed, several new stars have emerged. 

Black holes vary in size. They can be super big (supermassive) or as tiny as an atom. A question still comes up, how does a black hole exist in the universe? The facts suggest that black holes and the universe were created at the same time, probably during the big bang. It existed from the very beginning, and when the universe expanded in a boundary-less universe, the number of black holes increased. It is found that black holes exist in every galaxy. The black hole grows in size by pulling in every object and dust that surrounds it.