I still can’t get my head around this one. Can anyone help? I know they’re hard even for famous physicists but if anyone can simplify this concept for me I’d so appreciate it! Thank you!
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It’s not a ‘hole’ in space, it’s essentially a super massive star who’s gravity is now so strong that not even light (photons) can escape it. There is a feature called the Event Horizon, which is effectively a boundary of the black hole. If you cross the boundary, theres no coming back, it’s a one way ticket straight into the black hole.
So basically it’s a 3 dimensional object, just like a star or a planet, but it now has so much mass that it appears as a black hole in space. We can actually see light being bent around black holes because their gravity is so strong.
Black holes are usually what is left at the end of a stars life when the nuclear fusion process runs out of elements to condense into heavier ones releasing energy. Right now its converting hydrogen into helium, then once the helium exhausted it will convert helium into the next heavier element (lithium or something I think?). And it keeps going until iron, where iron cant be converted into a new element AND release energy, it actually consumes more energy to convert. Once this happens, gravity overcomes the the force of the star. In sufficiently massive stars, they will end up collapsing into a black hole.
Typing this as I’m sitting waiting to pick up a friend so no doubt this answer is riddled with problems but I hope I’ve at least hit some points correctly and can give you a better understanding. Check out Kurzgesagt on YouTube, I think they have some neat videos explaining black holes and other massive objects like neutron stars. Happy learning 🥳
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