10 Facts About Black Holes

If we talk about black holes facts for kids or for adults, the concept is analogous to the phrase, 'sky is the limit!' In other words, the facts are myriad. Nevertheless, the following section will give you some of the most interesting and thought provoking facts about black holes in space, till date!

• It has been estimated that there might be black holes of enormous size, which may be existing at the center of our galaxy, 'The Milky Way'. These holes are assumed to be having the mass of 10 - 100 billion suns. Now, that is something which is 'HUGE', in block letters! Cygnus X-1 is the black hole that is located about 8000 light years away from our planet Earth. This is the closest black hole to Earth, known to man.
• Although, black holes are associated with the reputation of having the strongest suction force, they do not bear the capability to absorb the whole universe. Anything such as planets, light and other matter, can be pulled into the grasp of black holes, only if they happen to cross what is known as the event horizon. The radius of this event horizon is known as the Schwarzschild radius and at this radius; the escape velocity equals the speed of the light. So, once an object has passed through it, it must travel faster than light in order to escape it. That is the reason why, even light cannot escape the event horizon of a black hole.
• As mentioned earlier, in this part of black holes in space, only the largest of stars are capable to end up as black holes. Only these stars are massive enough to get compressed to the Schwarzschild radius. While, smaller stars end up as white dwarfs or neutron stars.
• There are several black holes which exist in binary star systems. Stars which are neighboring such holes, will keep on shrinking as their mass will continually be pulled by these holes. Gradually, the black holes will go on increasing, until the other stars have completely vanished.
• As light cannot escape from a black hole, it cannot be directly observed. However, scientists use the presence of matters which swirl around the hole. Such matters are usually gas and dust and they heat up and emit radiation which can be detected.
• Talking about our Sun becoming a black hole, the phenomenon won't occur. This is because the sun is not massive enough to shrink into a black hole. However, it will end up becoming a white dwarf, after several billion years.
• The center of a black hole is void of time and space.
• A giant elliptical galaxy in the constellation Virgo is assumed to home the largest known black hole. This hole is about 3 billion times the mass of the Sun.
• Larger black holes are known to suck up other smaller ones which are close to their vicinity.

 Source: Buzzle.com