Endless Facts, One Snippet at a Time
Black Holes: The Ultimate Stellar Collapse
- Black holes form when massive stars collapse under their own gravity after a supernova.
- Their gravity is so strong that not even light can escape once it crosses the event horizon.
- Black holes come in different sizes, from stellar-mass to supermassive giants at galaxy centers.
- The Milky Way’s supermassive black hole, Sagittarius A*, is about 4 million times the Sun’s mass.
- Time and space warp dramatically near a black hole, creating extreme gravitational effects.
- Matter falling into black holes can heat up and emit powerful X-rays before crossing the horizon.
- Some black holes power quasars—brilliant cosmic beacons visible across the universe.
- Black hole mergers produce gravitational waves, ripples in spacetime detected on Earth.
- Despite their name, black holes can be indirectly observed through their influence on nearby stars and gas.
- Over unimaginable timescales, black holes may slowly evaporate through Hawking radiation.