Black Holes

Nine facts about black holes that will probably hurt your brain.

Black holes are among the strangest things in the universe. They are massive objects - collections of mass - with gravity so strong that nothing can escape, not even light. The most common types of black holes are the stellar-mass and supermassive black holes. Stellar-mass black holes are created when massive stars explode, leaving behind a black hole with the mass of just a few suns. Supermassive black holes exist in the hearts of galaxies and usually contain the mass equivalent of millions of suns.

Will an astronaut who falls into a black hole be crushed or burned to a crisp?

It is a great pleasure for me to be back again in Chile, to celebrate the sixtieth birthday of an old friend, and esteemed colleague, Claudio Bunster, whom I have known for almost forty years. Claudio has done so much for science in general, and for science in Chile in particular. Being in the city of Valdivia where CECs, the center he created, is located, is quite meaningful to me.

Get information, facts, photos, news, videos, and more about black holes from National Geographic.

Black holes are some of the strangest and most mysterious objects in the universe. Billions of them may exist in the Milky Way alone. But what, exactly, is a black hole?

Imagine matter packed so densely that nothing can escape. Not a moon, not a planet and not even light.

A black hole is a region of spacetime exhibiting such strong gravitational effects that nothing-including particles and electromagnetic radiation such as light-can escape from inside it. The theory of general relativity predicts that a sufficiently compact mass can deform spacetime to form a black hole.

A black hole is a place in space where gravity pulls so much that even light cannot get out.

Black Holes: Gravity's Relentless Pull. Information, virtual journeys, and simulations about black holes from the Space Telescope Science Institute.