![]() How about the different experience of time in the presence of such gravity? In those heartbeats you may get to see a billion years.Īt the Cauchy horizon, do you still experience time? Even more, at the Cauchy horizon determinism breaks down so whatever you think you're saying can simply be. If everything in the supermassive black hole falls into the singularity in a handful of heartbeats, then how come there is matter at the event horizon - mind you, water-density kind of matter. And the singularity lies in all your possible futures." Within the event horizon, nothing can stay still. ![]() For a giant one, at least a million times bigger than our sun, you have a handful of heartbeats to experience this mysterious corner of the universe.īut hit the singularity you must. įor a small black hole (a few times the mass of the sun counts as "small") you can't even blink an eye. for the questions that led to this piece! Ask your own question on Twitter using #AskASpaceman or by following Paul and /PaulMattSutter. Thanks to Steve B., Martin N., Julius S., Joyse S., Randy W., and John W. Learn more by listening to the episode " What happens when you fall into a black hole? " on the Ask A Spaceman podcast, available on iTunes and on the Web at. ![]() Dream of Visiting a Black Hole? Maybe Don't, Fun NASA Video Suggests.Why Are Black Holes So Weird? 'Ask a Spaceman' Explains.It would be nice if you could tell us, but like I said, nothing escapes a black hole, including you. When the singularity stretches completely from horizon to horizon, then you've made it.Īnd what do you find there? We don't know. But instead of appearing as a tiny point, the huge gravitational differences stretch that point to engulf most of your vision.Īs you approach the singularity, it appears as if you're landing on the surface of a vast, featureless, empty, black planet. It's pitch black - you can't see it, because it lies in your future, and just like your future you don't know what it looks like until you get there. Your view of the singularity becomes grotesque and distorted as well. This squeezing operates on the beams of light surrounding you as well, concentrating the infalling light into a bright band about your waist. And what's more, you're squeezed along your midsection. You are stretched head to toe in an aptly named process known as spaghettification. Due to the extreme gravity, that light is shifted to higher frequencies, and because of time dilation the outside universe appears sped up, but it's still there.īecause all the mass of the black hole is concentrated into an infinitely tiny point, the differences in gravity are extreme. Light from the surrounding universe fell in with you and continues to fall in after you. A rendezvous with infinityĪs you fall toward the singularity, you're not cloaked in blackness. And you will hit that singularity in a finite amount of time.Ĭlock's ticking. Turn left, turn up, turn around, it doesn't matter - the singularity always remains in front of you. You simply must travel toward the singularity. Here, a single point - the singularity - lies in your future. Inside the event horizon of a black hole, this common-sense understanding breaks down. But no matter where you do (or don't) go in space, you must always travel into your future. Up? Left? A little bit of both? Neither? The choice is yours. Outside the black hole's event horizon, you can move in any direction in space you please. And the singularity lies in all your possible futures. For a small black hole (a few times the mass of the sun counts as "small") you can't even blink an eye. How long it takes to reach the singularity depends on the mass of the black hole. You have a few moments to enjoy the experience before you meet your inevitable demise, if "enjoy" is the right word. As hard as you fired your rockets, would find yourself no farther from the singularity. If you were to fall below this boundary and decided you had enough of this black hole exploration business, then too bad. This is the distance from the singularity where the gravitational pull is so extreme that nothing, not even light itself, can escape the black hole's clutches. It's simply defined as a particular distance from the singularity, the distance where if you fall below this threshold, you can't get out. The event horizon isn't a real, physical boundary.
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