Deep in space, there lies a mysterium object that is as magnetic as it is mysterious: a black hole.
Throughout science fiction novels and movies, black holes are often portrayed as gigantic wormholes that can transport individuals to distant parts of the universe.
However, if you were ever lucky enough to get close enough to enter into a black hole’s event horizon, what would happen?
What Is a Black Hole?
A black hole is a region of spacetime exhibiting such strong gravitational effects that nothing—not even 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.
The boundary of the region from which no escape is possible is called the event horizon. Although crossing the event horizon has an enormous effect on the path of objects attempting to travel across it, it appears to have no locally detectable features. In many ways, a black hole acts like an ideal black body, as it reflects no light.
What Would Happen If You Tried Entering a Black Hole?
When an object approaches a black hole, it will be pulled by gravity much stronger than Earth’s.
If you were ever lucky enough to get close enough to enter into a black hole’s event horizon, you would be torn apart by tidal forces before reaching the central singularity. Even if you somehow managed to get past that point, you would never escape because there is no way for any information or matter to pass through an event horizon.
What Would it Be Like If You Went Inside One?
There is only one way to find out what it would be like inside a black hole and that is by traveling through one. However, it is known that light cannot escape its gravitational pull, so you would never see any of the extraordinary things that lay inside.
Many have theorized that black holes are wormholes to a different part of the universe. Even if this were true, you would not be able to get very far because anything that enters a black hole’s event horizon is never seen again!