Feelgood Theosophy
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Instant Guide
to Black Holes
A black hole is
a celestial object of such extremely intense gravity that it attracts
everything near it and prevents everything, including light, from escaping. The
term was first used in reference to a star in the last phases of gravitational
collapse.
Gravitational collapse begins when a star has depleted its steady sources of
nuclear energy and can no longer produce the expansive force, a result of normal
gas pressure, that supports the star against the
compressive force of its own gravitation. In some cases, nothing remains to
prevent the star from collapsing without limit to an indefinitely small size
and infinitely large density, to create a black hole.
At this point the effects of Einstein's general theory of relativity become
paramount. According to this theory, space becomes curved in the vicinity of
matter (this is the meaning of gravity); the greater the concentration of
matter, the greater the curvature (the greater the gravity).
When the star
shrinks below a certain size determined by its mass, the extreme curvature of
space seals off contact with the outside world. The place beyond which no
radiation can escape even not light.
It is now believed that the origin of some black holes is nonstellar. Some
astrophysicists suggest that immense volumes of interstellar matter can collect
and collapse into supermassive black holes, such as are found at the center of
some galaxies.
Because light and other forms of energy and matter are permanently trapped
inside a black hole, it can never be observed directly. However, a black hole
could be detected by the effect of its gravitational field on nearby objects
(e.g., if it is orbited by a visible star), during the collapse while it was
forming, or by the X rays and radio frequency signals emitted by rapidly
swirling matter being pulled into the black hole. A small number of possible
black holes have been detected, although none of the discoveries has been
conclusive.
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