Black Holes Essay

1893 Words8 Pages
AUCKLAND UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY THE EXISTENCE OF BLACK HOLES WHAT ARE BLACK HOLES? DO THEY REALLY EXIST? TEVITA PAEA ID: 0102315 LITERATURE REVIEW ESSAYS “WHAT ARE BLACK HOLES?DO THEY EXIST?: If they do, HOW ?”If not: HOW?” Our solar system consists of ten planets revolving around the Sun. The Sun serves as a magnet that uses its gravitational pull to hold the solar system together. If the Sun were to disappear, what would hold the planets together? The answer might be a black hole. A black hole is a theorized body whose gravity is so strong that even light can’t escape from within it (Black Holes, Quasars &Universe by Harry L. Shipman p.64). If light can’t escape from a black hole, then it must be invisible - therefore how can we know that the black holes exist? Black Holes, if theories of their existence are true, black holes are the most powerful force in the known physical universe. Many people are familiar with the term black hole, but few people actually know anything about them. A black hole forms as a result of a massive star running out of fuel to burn (Black Holes, Relativity, and Fate of the Universe by Eric Chaisson, p.193). Once the star is no longer exerting outward force by burning off gases, it begins to collapse under its own intense, inward gravity (Chaisson, p.193). It is like slowly letting the air out of a balloon. Once the star is compacted to a certain size, while it's mass, or weight, remains the same, its gravity becomes so powerful that nothing can escape it (Prof. Stephen Hawking, p.87). This critical size to weight ratio is known as the Schwarzchild Radius (Hawking, p.87). Once a black hole is created in this way, an invisible area, or line around it exists. If any object crosses this line, it can no longer escape the gravitational force of the black hole (Hawking, p.87). This line is called the event horizon

More about Black Holes Essay

Open Document