How Science and Technology Unveil the Mysteries Behind the Black Holes

Black holes are, undoubtedly, one of the enthralling objects in the universe. Their strangeness and the mysteries behind them have been a question for centuries. In this article, we will focus on black holes, the physics behind them, and how science and technology go on to unveil the conundra behind those cosmological phenomena.

According to NASA, A black hole is a place in space where gravity pulls so much that even light can not get out. The gravity is so strong because matter has been squeezed into a tiny space. The black holes occur when stars die. Intuitively, people muse on how stars die. As with everything, stars have a beginning point. Stars begin their lives when hydrogen fusion ignites in their dense and hot cores. The mass of the star and its gravitational pull tries to squeeze it down into a tiny point while the energy released by the fusion- called the fuel of the star- pushes outward, generating a critical and delicate balance that can last for millions or even billions of years. However, when this balance can’t persist anymore, the star collapses. This explosion is called a supernova. What’s left after Supernova depends on the mass of the star. If there’s sufficient mass, a black hole can occur. If not, the collapsed core of the star, or the neutron star, will be left.

There are four types of black holes: stellar, intermediate, supermassive, and miniature. Supermassive black holes are the largest black holes; stars that are at least millions of times as massive as our sun can turn into a supermassive black hole. In fact, the smallest stars that can turn into black holes are at least 20 or 30 times more massive than

Figure 1: Supernova

our sun, meaning that the sun will never turn into a black hole. The simple physics behind black holes is that due to their massive masses, black holes have a crazy amount of gravitational force pulling on everything.

The first person to ever talk about black holes was Albert Einstein. Einstein first talked about the existence of black holes when he published his theory of general relativity in 1916, describing how gravity shapes the fabric of spacetime. According to his theory, black holes can have just three characteristics: mass, spin, and charge. All astronomical objects are formed by gravity pulling matter together.

Black holes have great rotation as the gravitational collapse of a spinning star enhances the total momentum. In fact, in our

Figure 2: Albert Einstein and his theory

universe, everything from dust particles to black holes has some degree of rotation. A charged black hole is a black hole that possesses an electric charge. However, since the electromagnetic repulsion in compressing an electrically charged mass is significantly greater than its gravitational attraction, it is not expected that black holes with a significant electric charge will occur in the universe.

One of the important questions is that what will happen if a person goes into a black hole. Scientists and astronomers do not actually know what is happening inside the black holes. The only thing that theories present is that there is a point with enormous density at the center of black holes. Astronomers call the pulling effect of black holes “being spaghettified”. This is caused by the strong gravitational forces of the black holes, pulling you before you reach the event horizon. According to COSMOS, The “event horizon” is the boundary defining the region of space around a black hole from which nothing (not even light) can escape. In other words, the escape velocity for an object within the event horizon exceeds the speed of light.

In 2019, an important milestone for our understanding of the universe was achieved. Scientists unveiled the first object of a black hole, existing 50 million light-years away. Found in the galaxy Messier 87, this supermassive black hole has the same mass as 6.5 million times as our sun. This achievement is a result of an eminent endeavor: The Event Horizon Project. This project is a global cooperation of more than 200 scientists who are employing a variety of observatories from Hawaii to the South Pole. The technique used to link this telescope across the globe to create an Earth-sized interferometer that is being used to measure a variety of universal phenomena. The team behind the Event Horizon Project was awarded the Breakthrough Prize for their labor, however, they didn’t cease to work on the project and managed the capture the most detailed version of a black hole. This enigmatic image shows the black hole’s vortex and the magnetic field lines at its inner edge.

Figure 3: the latest image of a black hole

Undoubtedly, the universe still possesses a lot of unsolved mysteries; one of those being black holes, these mysteries will, most probably, maintain to blow our minds in a great manner. However, with the developments in science and technology, humanity will, hopefully, be able to find all the answers to those mysteries.

-Güney Baver Gürbüz

References: 

Crookes, David. “Where Do Black Holes Lead?” Space.com, Space, 17 May 2021, www.space.com/where-do-black-holes-lead.html.
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Dunbar, Brian. “What Is a Black Hole?” NASA, NASA, 21 May 2015, www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/k-4/stories/nasa-knows/what-is-a-black-hole-k4.html.
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Gunn, Dr Alastair. “How Do Stars Die?” BBC Science Focus Magazine, www.sciencefocus.com/space/how-do-stars-die/.

“How Scientists Captured the First Image of a Black Hole - Teachable Moments.” NASA, NASA, 19 Apr. 2019, www.jpl.nasa.gov/edu/news/2019/4/19/how-scientists-captured-the-first-image-of-a-black-hole/.

Information@eso.org. “ESO Supernova.” ESO Supernova Exhibition -, supernova.eso.org/exhibition/1205/.

Wall, Mike. “Tiny Newfound 'Unicorn' Is Closest Known Black Hole to Earth.” Space.com, Space, 21 Apr. 2021, www.space.com/tiny-black-hole-unicorn-closest-to-earth.

Wei-Haas, Maya. “Black Holes, Explained.” Science, National Geographic, 3 May 2021, www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/black-holes. 

Image References: 

Cascone, Sarah. “Astronomers Have Captured the Most Detailed Photo of a Black Hole Ever-See the Magnetic Fields That Power It Here.” Artnet News, Artnet News, 27 Apr. 2021, news.artnet.com/art-world/most-detailed-black-hole-photograph-1955942. 

Kettley, Sebastian. “Black Hole Shock: Einstein's Relativity Is Put to the Test - 'Theory Could Break down'.” Express.co.uk, Express.co.uk, 16 Sept. 2019, 
www.express.co.uk/news/science/1178809/Black-hole-news-Albert-Einstein-theory-gravitational-waves-black-hole-ringing-LIGO. 

“How Does a Star Blow up?” Highlights Kids, www.highlightskids.com/explore/science-questions/how-does-a-star-blow-up.