Black holes continue to be some of the most fascinating phenomena in the universe. They are an unknown force that makes celestial objects disappear, and that kind of power and circumstances are just almost too big to wrap our brains around, and that is what makes them even more curious, not just for astronomers, but for everyone that has ever expressed interest in space.
Unlike what many may believe, black holes are still tied to the same rules of the universe as everything else, like gravity, and if we are looking at how that works, the best explanation we have to date is the theory of general relativity. This theory explains everything from the way planets orbit to how light bends near massive objects, and even how the universe itself is expanding faster over time. It has been tested a lot of times to see if we can come up with something better, but over and over again it has proven that it can explain everything, including these black holes and how they work.
How do black holes work
Black holes are places where gravity has completely taken over and nothing, not even light, can get out. Out in space, stars and planets do not just collapse because the pressure inside pushes back against their own gravity, but if an object has enough mass, gravity wins, and the whole thing caves in on itself, forming a black hole. There are a few kinds of black holes, which can make everything even more confusing for those of us that do not have an astrophysics degree, but to start with, we should focus on the non-spinning kind (and yes, that does mean that there is a spinning kind).
Non-spinning black holes are called Schwarzschild black holes and are named after Karl Schwarzschild, who first found them in Einstein’s equations. They are unique in that from the outside, they act just like a regular star with the same mass, except they look pitch-black because they trap all light. Since they have their own contained space and do not just expand, they have limits, and the line that separates the limit of the hole from the rest of the universe is called the event horizon.
Once that line is crossed, you would be headed for the center of the hole, where we are still not very sure what happens. Math has been trying to figure it out, but we are lacking a lot of data and the theories that have been proposed range from infinite gravity to infinite density. The only thing that we seem sure of is that, if you manage to get inside a black hole, there is no getting out of it and trying to get out will only pull you in faster, which is not very reassuring.
For now we can only theorize about what would happen of we went into a black hole, although the universal consensus seems to end in death quite quickly, but the only way to find out would be to do it, and there would be no way with our current technology to record or broadcast the experiment in a way that we could see it here on Earth to study it.
This means that for now, black holes will continue to remain a mystery that we try to solve with theoretical applications of physics and math, but one day, when we find a way, we will be able to get inside one and finally figure out the secrets that they have been hiding since the creation of the universe. Having said that, it is likely that the answer is “nothing” and that is a philosophical debate that will need to happen eventually.