Is a black hole a portal or a death trap?
339754
go float into one and when or if you come back tell me.
1095953
There are no black holes close enough for a terrestrial probe to reach them yet. According to current theory, the intense gravitational field would trap any electromagnetic signal the probe might be sending out after it crossed the event horizon, so we wouldn't know what happened in any event.
38830
a black hole is a point of infinite density and gravitational pull. First of all you would be dead from different gravitational pulls from the black hole. Second of all, time from your perspective would stop, assuming that einstein is correct and your image would be spread out over an infinite period of time so your friend would see nothing.
603896
A black hole is a concentration of mass great enough that the force of gravity prevents anything past its event horizon from escaping it except through quantum tunnelling behaviour (known as Hawking Radiation). The gravitational field is so strong that the escape velocity past its event horizon exceeds the speed of light. This implies that nothing, not even light, inside the event horizon can escape its gravity. It is, however, theorized that wormholes can provide an exit path for energy or matter. The term "black hole" is widespread, even though it does not refer to a hole in the usual sense, but rather a region of space from which nothing can return.\n\nThe existence of black holes in the universe is well supported by astronomical observation, particularly from studying X-ray emission from X-ray binaries and active galactic nuclei.
1166146
Yes........more or less. A Black hole is a small view of what the universe as a whole will be like billions of years from now.
733858
Far from disprove it, this is in fact what astronomers theorizes occur at the so called "event horizon" of a black hole.  This theoretical sphere surrounds the black hole at a distance determined by its mass (the greater the mass, the larger the event horizon).  Any light that crosses into the sphere becomes drawn inward by the gravitational pull of the black hole, but light rays that are perfectly tangential to the event horizon become trapped in orbit.  This can only occur around a black hole, as a gravitational pull that can create such an orbital path must require that any paths within said orbit are inescapable.
417388
In order to answer your question, we had to leap into the theoretical rabbit hole of quantum physics. Ready to go for a ride? \nThe armchair astronomer is probably more familiar with the concepts of black holes and wormholes, which help explain the very theoretical idea of white holes. Yahoo! Reference defines a black hole as a cosmic body with a gravitational force so strong that no matter, not even light, can escape its pull. A wormhole is a theoretical wrinkle or "shortcut" that connects two disparate points in space or time, much like a tunnel or a bridge. \n\nAs exciting as such an intergalactic transit system sounds, most astronomers and physicists agree that wormholes are probably more science fiction than fact. As this excellent source informs us, there is no evidence to support the existence of wormholes. But for the sake of understanding white holes, let's assume wormholes do exist. \n\nWhen all matter, including light and time, is sucked into a black hole, an infinitely dense singularity occurs. With all this heavy-duty cosmic attraction going on, something has to give, right? Enter white holes. \n\nPut simply, the idea here is "what goes into a black hole must somehow come out." If a black hole tears the space-time fabric of "our universe" creating a wormhole, a white hole would be the entry point into the "other universe." Essentially, a white hole would be the mathematical representation of the black hole in reverse, only it wouldn't physically exist.
318465
No, because if that were the case, none of us would be alive to talk about it.  Inside a black hole, the force of gravity is so strong, that nothing, not even light, can escape.  Once sucked in (to the black hole), there would be a time period of about eight seconds to travel from the outer regions of the black hole, to the singularity (black dot in the middle).  However, that time period is based upon our interpretation of time.  We see time as merely a basis on something else (the sun gives us a 24 hour day, the earth's rotation around the sun gives us our calendar year, etc).  This can get really complicated, so in a nutshell, if we were in a black hole, we would be moving at the speed of light, which is much quicker than the pace at which humans live.  That being said, when entering a black hole, time itself would actually speed up.  Once the singularity is reached, we would be crushed to an unbelievable density, making it impossible to live.  So to answer your question, we are not living in a black hole, although there is evidence of their existence in our universe.
520554
Small black holes disappear in a puff of Hawking radiation, pretty rapidly.\n\nThey don't really need containment. They just evapourate into thermal radiation.  It's only the dirty great big ones that could smash the place up.  Making one of these on earth is just not feasible.  The ones that occur naturally in the universe are rather a long way off.\n\nNothing to worry about.
246486
I'm sure physicists around the world ponder these questions on a daily basis.\nFirstly,astronomers believe that there is a super-massive balck hole at the center of our galaxy, the Milky wave. Through spectrometric measurements, they have shown that the large amounts of gamma rays emitting from it are due to the huge chunks of nearby stars and matter that it sucks in each second. It is believed that this matter is absorbed by the black hole and compressed into nothingness. However, some believe that some of this matter (including people) could be transported through some sort of tunnel into another part of space\n\n2. No one knows for sure if wormholes exist. But if they do, it could provide a way to travel faster than the speed of light like in star trek or other shows, the so called "hyperspace".\n\n3. Yes, if you dug through the earth, you'd emerge into space, with nothing under your feet. If you were to travel in such a "hollowed-out" tunnel, as you approach the center of the earth, the gravity would gradually decrease until it would be zero at the exact center. If you drop a ball into this tunnel, it would oscillate forever, assuming no air is present, like a spring with simple harmonic motion since the gravity is a function of depth.
387898
Black holes are food for my brain and curiosity. I love the subject it is so interesting!\nBackround info: A black hole is a concentration of mass great enough that the force of gravity prevents anything from escaping from it except through quantum tunneling behavior. The gravitational field is so strong that the escape velocity near it exceeds the speed of light. This implies that nothing, not even light, can escape its gravity, hence the word "black." The term "black hole" is widespread, even though it does not refer to a hole in the usual sense, but rather a region of space from which nothing can return. Theoretically, black holes can have any size, from microscopic to near the size of the observable universe.\nBlack holes are predicted by general relativity. According to classical general relativity, neither matter nor information can flow from the interior of a black hole to an outside observer. For example, one cannot bring out any of its mass, or receive a reflection back by shining a light source such as a flashlight, or retrieve any information about the material that has entered the black hole. Quantum mechanical effects may allow matter and energy to radiate from black holes; however, it is thought that the nature of the radiation does not depend on what has fallen into the black hole in the past.\n\nThe existence of black holes in the universe is well supported by astronomical observation, particularly from studying supernovae and X-ray emissions from active galactic nuclei.\nMy answer 1)time travel when you, or in this case an object, goes fast the world goes slow. and if something, a black hole, is going, or sucking, fast enough, the world around you will eventually begin to reverse.
347123
Yes...and just paid off his bet to John Preskill in regards to whether information can escape from black holes.\n\nIn 1997 the three cosmologists Stephen Hawking, Kip Thorne and John Preskill made a famous bet as to whether information that enters a black hole ceases to exist -- that is, whether the interior of a black hole is changed at all by the characteristics of particles that enter it.\n\nIt now looks like Stephen Hawking and Kip Thorne may owe John Preskill a set of encyclopedias of his choice, since physicists at Ohio State University 'have derived an extensive set of equations that strongly suggest that the information continues to exist -- bound up in a giant tangle of strings that fills a black hole from its core to its surface.'
334992
There are thoeries but they are just that theories.  Some people believe in the big crunch, in that the universe will eventually stop expanding and then retract to a singularity.\nOr that black holes will carry on being created and absorb one another untill the entire universe is swallowed up.\n\nBut to be honest science does not really have the means to provide a definitive answer at the moment.  We will have to wait and see.
596967
A black hole is a concentration of mass great enough that the force of gravity prevents anything past its event horizon from escaping it except through quantum tunnelling behaviour (known as Hawking Radiation). The gravitational field is so strong that the escape velocity past its event horizon exceeds the speed of light. This implies that nothing, not even light, inside the event horizon can escape its gravity. It is, however, theorized that wormholes can let one exit a black hole. The term "black hole" is widespread, even though it does not refer to a hole in the usual sense, but rather a region of space from which nothing can return.\n\nThe existence of black holes in the universe is well supported by astronomical observation, particularly from studying X-ray emission from X-ray binaries and active galactic nuclei.
1142505
The singularity itself has zero size. But the conventional "measurement" of a black hole is its "Schwarzchild radius", which is the distance from the singularity at which the escape velocity is equal to the speed of light. Once anything (even light!) falls within the Schwarzchild radius, it cannot escape. The size of the Schwarzchild radius depends on the mass of the black hole.
522523
When all matter, including light and time, is sucked into a black hole, an infinitely dense singularity occurs. With all this heavy-duty cosmic attraction going on, something has to give, right? Enter white holes. \n\nPut simply, the idea here is "what goes into a black hole must somehow come out." If a black hole tears the space-time fabric of "our universe" creating a wormhole, a white hole would be the entry point into the "other universe." Essentially, a white hole would be the mathematical exist that emits matter n light just opposite to black hole
1059153
A black hole is a singularity in spacetime. In other words, its a place where the stress energy caused by a gravitating mass is so large that spacetime curves to a single point.\n\nIt is not possible to know what happens on the other side of a black hole because all of the laws of physics are discontinuous at its boundary. Thats not to say that they change inside the black hole, its just to say that there is no experiment that can be done or observation made outside the black hole that can ever tell you what is going on inside it.\n\nFalling into a black hole is odd. As the gravitational field increases, time relative to places with a lower gravitational field runs slower. At the event horizon of the black hole (just before you fell in) the escape velocity is the speed of light, and so it would be akin to travelling at the speed of light (which is impossible). Time for you would extend infinitely, even those outside would see you fall in.