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Learning objectives

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

  • Explain the event horizon surrounding a black hole    
  • Discuss why the popular notion of black holes as great sucking monsters that can ingest material at great distances from them is erroneous
  • Use the concept of warped spacetime near a black hole to track what happens to any object that might fall into a black hole
  • Recognize why the concept of a singularity—with its infinite density and zero volume—presents major challenges to our understanding of matter

Let’s now apply what we have learned about gravity and spacetime curvature to the issue we started with: the collapsing core in a very massive star. We saw that if the core’s mass is greater than about 3 M Sun , theory says that nothing can stop the core from collapsing forever. We will examine this situation from two perspectives: first from a pre-Einstein point of view, and then with the aid of general relativity.

Classical collapse

Let’s begin with a thought experiment. We want to know what speeds are required to escape from the gravitational pull of different objects. A rocket must be launched from the surface of Earth at a very high speed if it is to escape the pull of Earth’s gravity. In fact, any object—rocket, ball, astronomy book—that is thrown into the air with a velocity less than 11 kilometers per second will soon fall back to Earth’s surface. Only those objects launched with a speed greater than this escape velocity can get away from Earth.

The escape velocity from the surface of the Sun is higher yet—618 kilometers per second. Now imagine that we begin to compress the Sun, forcing it to shrink in diameter. Recall that the pull of gravity depends on both the mass that is pulling you and your distance from the center of gravity of that mass. If the Sun is compressed, its mass will remain the same, but the distance between a point on the Sun’s surface and the center will get smaller and smaller. Thus, as we compress the star, the pull of gravity for an object on the shrinking surface will get stronger and stronger ( [link] ).

Formation of a black hole.

Formation of a Black Hole. At left in this illustration an astronaut stands atop a bluish sphere. At center, the astronaut stands atop a smaller white sphere which is surrounded by arrows pointing inward toward the center of the white sphere. Finally, at right, a very thin and elongated astronaut hovers just above a small black dot. The text below the black dot reads: “No escape”.
At left, an imaginary astronaut floats near the surface of a massive star-core about to collapse. As the same mass falls into a smaller sphere, the gravity at its surface goes up, making it harder for anything to escape from the stellar surface. Eventually the mass collapses into so small a sphere that the escape velocity exceeds the speed of light and nothing can get away. Note that the size of the astronaut has been exaggerated. In the last picture, the astronaut is just outside the sphere we will call the event horizon and is stretched and squeezed by the strong gravity.

When the shrinking Sun reaches the diameter of a neutron star (about 20 kilometers), the velocity required to escape its gravitational pull will be about half the speed of light. Suppose we continue to compress the Sun to a smaller and smaller diameter. (We saw this can’t happen to a star like our Sun in the real world because of electron degeneracy, i.e., the mutual repulsion between tightly packed electrons; this is just a quick “thought experiment” to get our bearings).

Questions & Answers

the diagram of the digestive system
Assiatu Reply
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Ogenrwot
How does twins formed
William Reply
They formed in two ways first when one sperm and one egg are splited by mitosis or two sperm and two eggs join together
Oluwatobi
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Josephine Reply
Genetics is the study of heredity
Misack
how does twins formed?
Misack
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Joseph Reply
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Yousuf Reply
the study of living organisms and their interactions with one another and their environments
AI-Robot
the study of living organisms and their interactions with one another and their environment.
Wine
discuss the biological phenomenon and provide pieces of evidence to show that it was responsible for the formation of eukaryotic organelles in an essay form
Joseph Reply
what is the blood cells
Shaker Reply
list any five characteristics of the blood cells
Shaker
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Abdullahi Reply
advantage of electronic microscope is easily and clearly while disadvantage is dangerous because its electronic. advantage of light microscope is savely and naturally by sun while disadvantage is not easily,means its not sharp and not clear
Abdullahi
cell theory state that every organisms composed of one or more cell,cell is the basic unit of life
Abdullahi
is like gone fail us
DENG
cells is the basic structure and functions of all living things
Ramadan
What is classification
ISCONT Reply
is organisms that are similar into groups called tara
Yamosa
in what situation (s) would be the use of a scanning electron microscope be ideal and why?
Kenna Reply
A scanning electron microscope (SEM) is ideal for situations requiring high-resolution imaging of surfaces. It is commonly used in materials science, biology, and geology to examine the topography and composition of samples at a nanoscale level. SEM is particularly useful for studying fine details,
Hilary
cell is the building block of life.
Condoleezza Reply
what is cell divisoin?
Aron Reply
Diversity of living thing
ISCONT
what is cell division
Aron Reply
Cell division is the process by which a single cell divides into two or more daughter cells. It is a fundamental process in all living organisms and is essential for growth, development, and reproduction. Cell division can occur through either mitosis or meiosis.
AI-Robot
What is life?
Allison Reply
life is defined as any system capable of performing functions such as eating, metabolizing,excreting,breathing,moving,Growing,reproducing,and responding to external stimuli.
Mohamed
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Source:  OpenStax, Astronomy. OpenStax CNX. Apr 12, 2017 Download for free at http://cnx.org/content/col11992/1.13
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