Are Black Holes Scarier Than a Ghost? 5 Fun Facts About Them

The regions in space called black holes where gravity is so robust that nothing can escape them are considered a hot topic in news reports nowadays.

A CNN report describes Halloween as a "time to be haunted by ghosts," ghouls, and goblins. However, nothing in the universe is scarier than a black hole.

Half of last year's Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to roger Penrose for his mathematical work that showed black holes as an inevitable effect of the theory of gravity of the genius Albert Einstein.

The other half of the award was shared by Andrea Ghez and Reinhard Genzel for exhibiting that a massive black hole is sitting at the center of gravity.

In a The Conversation article where this description on black holes as scarier than a ghost originally came from, Professor Chris Impey of the University of Arizona wrote, black holes are scary for three reasons: a hungry beast in each galaxy, death caused by it, and supermassive black holes are considered strange.

5 Fun Facts About Black Holes

Black holes may indeed be scary, but at times, they can be interesting and funny to some people, too. A lot of information and details about black holes have already been included in various reports, particularly on how they are formed.

Instead of scary, why not learn more about the fun facts about Black Holes? Here are five of them, according to the University of Maine site:

1. Stellar Black Holes Result from Dying Stars

Large stars' death leads to black holes as the gravity of a star will overwhelm the natural pressure that it maintains to keep its shape.

When the pressure coming from nuclear reactions collapses, gravity is overwhelming and collapsing the core of the star, and the latter's other layers are thrown off into space. This process is known as "supernova." The rest of the core collapses, an area overcome by density and minus volume, a black hole.

2. Discovery of the First Black Hole Did Not Take Place Until X-Ray Astronomy was Employed

The first black hole called Cygnus X-1 was discovered in the 1960s. It was found to be 10 times larger than the Sun.

3. The Milky Way Probably Has Black Holes

This is not an alarming "funny fact" though, because Earth is not in danger. The major black hole many astronomers believe to be within the Milky Way is light years away from this planet.

4. Science Fiction is Constantly Using Black Holes

There's a swarm of black hole representations in science fiction. Some of the examples include Star Trek, Interstellar, Battlestar Galactica, Event Horizon, Superman: The Animated Series, Treasure Island, and Transformers, among others.

5. A Black Hole Cannot Be Directly Seen

A black hole is seen as such due to its color because light cannot escape from it. However, in reality, a black hole cannot be directly seen, only its impact upon its environment. For instance, a star that is close enough to a black hole can be determined because it would be ripped apart.

Related facts about black holes is shown on Alpha Paw's YouTube video below:

Check out more news and information on Space in Science Times.