NASA recently uploaded an audio file proving that the black hole produces some sound. That ignited the curiosity of some behind the mystery of the black hole.
With that, here is a detailed and simple brush up on the black hole.
A large quantity of matter is compressed into an extremely limited space to create a black hole. You can imagine it as a star that is ten times more massive than the Sun being squished into a hole in space that is the shape of a sphere.
It possesses a gravitational field that is so enormous, so powerful, and so dense that nothing, not even light, can escape from its grasp.
In addition to this, black holes gained notoriety due to the fact that Einstein's theory of general relativity predicted their existence. This theory demonstrates that when a massive star dies, it leaves behind a compact and dense remnant core.
According to NASA, "the equations show that if the core's mass is greater than about three times the mass of the Sun, the equations show that the force of gravity overwhelms all other forces and produces a black hole."
What is a black hole?
A black hole is a region in space with such a strong gravitational attraction that even light cannot escape because so much matter has been compressed into such a small area.
Black holes are impossible to detect with the naked eye because there is no way for light to escape. However, space telescopes that have been built with the capability to observe terrestrial objects from space can assist researchers in locating them.
- How do black holes come into existence?
The death of a star is believed by scientists to be the origin of black holes. According to NASA, "Stellar black holes form when the center of a very massive star collapses in upon itself."
A supernova, also known as an exploding star, is also brought on by this collapse and sends a portion of the star into space. Supermassive black holes are thought to have developed along with the galaxy they reside in.
- What is the size of black holes?
Black holes in space come in different sizes; some of them are small, while some are big.
According to NASA, the smallest possible black holes are on the scale of a single atom. However, despite their small size, they possess a mass as large as a mountain.
Stellar black holes are a different classification of black hole. It is possible for its mass to be up to twenty times greater than that of the sun.
There is another type of black hole known as a "supermassive" black hole, which has a mass greater than a million times that of the sun.
Recently, scientists have proven that there is a supermassive black hole in every galaxy. As an example, we have Sagittarius A, the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy.
- Can the black hole consume the earth?
The quick answer is no. There is no evidence that black holes wander around space devouring stars, planets, and moons. Since there are no black holes that are remotely close enough to the solar system, there is no chance that Earth will ever be sucked into one of them.
- The sound of the black hole
Just recently, on August 22, 2022, NASA released an audio clip of what the black hole sounds like.
A widespread misunderstanding holds that there is no such thing as sound in space. This is because the vast majority of space is essentially a vacuum, which does not provide a medium for sound waves to propagate through. As a result, sound cannot travel through space.
However, NASA published a spooky and eerie sound that came from the black hole, which officially debunked the myth that was previously mentioned.
The misconception that there is no sound in space originates because most space is a ~vacuum, providing no way for sound waves to travel. A galaxy cluster has so much gas that we've picked up actual sound. Here it's amplified, and mixed with other data, to hear a black hole! pic.twitter.com/RobcZs7F9e
— NASA Exoplanets (@NASAExoplanets) August 21, 2022
Black Holes in the Galaxies
One of the examples of a galaxy that has a black hole is the Perseus galaxy cluster. The Perseus galaxy has a black hole located at the center of it.
The Perseus galaxy cluster, which is also known as Abell 426, is located approximately 250 million light-years away from our own galaxy, the Milky Way, and contains more than 500 galaxies that have been cataloged.
It is the brightest and one of the most gigantic of the nearby star clusters. According to Chandra, galaxy clusters are among the most humongous objects in the known universe. They are composed of thousands of galaxies that are submerged in a vast cloud of gas that is heated to temperatures in the millions of degrees.
Galaxy clusters are the most massive objects in the universe that are held together by gravitational forces.
Galaxy clusters are thought to originate when clumps of dark matter and the galaxies that are associated with them are drawn together by the force of gravity to form groups of dozens of galaxies. These groups of galaxies then merge to form clusters of hundreds or even thousands of galaxies.
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