Wiki Word:Black Hole

Definition:A black hole is a region of space in which the garvitational field is so powerful that nothing, not even light or radition, can escape its pull

A black hole is a region of space in which the gravitational field is so powerful that nothing, not even light, can escape its pull after having fallen past its event horizon. The term "Black Hole" comes from the fact that, at a certain point, even electromagnetic radiation is unable to break away from the attraction of these massive objects. This renders the hole's interior invisible or, rather, black like the appearance of space itself.

Despite its interior being invisible, a black hole may reveal its presence through an interaction with matter that lies in orbit outside its event horizon. For example, a black hole may be perceived by tracking the movement of a group of stars that orbit its center. Alternatively, one may observe gas (from a nearby star, for instance) that has been drawn into the black hole. The gas spirals inward, heating up to very high temperatures and emitting large amounts of radiation that can be detected from earthbound and earth-orbiting telescopes. Such observations have resulted in the general scientific consensus that — barring a breakdown of our understanding nature— black holes do exist in our universe.

While the idea of an object with gravity strong enough to prevent light from escaping was proposed in the 18th century, black holes, as currently understood, are described by Einstein's general theory of relativity, which he developed in 1916. This theory predicts that when a large enough amount of mass is present in a sufficiently small region of space, all paths through space are warped inwards towards the center of the volume, preventing all matter and radiation within it from escaping.

All of this information is from Wikipedia

Underlined words are links.

These are both simulated views of a Black Hole.

The area surrounding the Black hole is distorted because of it's enormous gravitational pull.

In this picture the black hole is feeding off of the near by star

Animation of a Black Hole Pulling Matter from Companion Star   --->Black Hole Video<--- helps you understand the concept   This shows you how a black hole would absob the mass of this nearby star

---> Supermassive Black Hole Video<---

This is a very helpful videoT

 Understanding this will help us make further advances in science.  We need to know this to understand that is a star in the sky vanishes that it could have been absorbed be a nearby Black Hole (as seen above

Black Holes. www.wikipedia.org. April 28, 2008. 28 Apr 2008 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_hole>.

 "Black Hole Animations and videos." chandra.harvard.edu. august 28 2007. Chandra. 29 Apr 2008 <http://chandra.harvard.edu/resources/animations/blackholes.html>.

PA