What is a Black Hole?

History
A black hole is what remains when a massive star The concept of an object
dies. from which light could not
escape (e.g., black hole) was
originally proposed by Pierre
If you have read How Stars Work, then you know that a
Simon Laplace in 1795. Using
star is a huge, amazing fusion reactor. Because stars
Newton's Theory of Gravity,
are so massive and made out of gas, there is an
Laplace calculated that if an
intense gravitational field that is always trying to
object were compressed into
collapse the star. The fusion reactions happening in the
a small enough radius, then
core are like a giant fusion bomb that is trying to
the escape velocity of that
explode the star. The balance between the
object would be faster than
gravitational forces and the explosive forces is what
the speed of light.
defines the size of the star.
As the star dies, the nuclear fusion reactions stop because the fuel for these
reactions gets burned up. At the same time, the star's gravity pulls material inward
and compresses the core. As the core compresses, it heats up and eventually creates
a supernova explosion in which the material and radiation blasts out into space. What
remains is the highly compressed, and extremely massive,
core. The core's gravity is so strong that even light cannot escape.
This object is now a black hole and literally disappears from view. Because the core's
gravity is so strong, the core sinks through the fabric of space-time, creating a hole in
space-time -- this is why the object is called a black hole.

Photo courtesy NASA

Artist concept of a black hole: The arrows show the
paths of objects in and around the opening of the
black hole.
The core becomes the central part of the black hole called the singularity. The
opening of the hole is called the event horizon.
You can think of the event horizon as the mouth of the black hole. Once something
passes the event horizon, it is gone for good. Once inside the event horizon, all
"events" (points in space-time) stop, and nothing (even light) can escape. The radius
of the event horizon is called the Schwarzschild radius, named after astronomer
Karl Schwarzschild, whose work led to the theory of black holes.
 Types of Black Holes

There are two types of black holes:

• Schwarzschild - Non-rotating black hole

• Kerr - Rotating black hole
The Schwarzschild black hole is the simplest black hole, in which the core does not
rotate. This type of black hole only has a singularity and an event horizon.

The Kerr black hole, which is probably the most common form in nature, rotates
because the star from which it was formed was rotating. When the rotating star
collapses, the core continues to rotate, and this carried over to the black hole
(conservation of angular momentum). The Kerr black hole has the following
parts:
• Singularity - The collapsed core
• Event horizon - The opening of the hole
• Ergosphere - An egg-shaped region of distorted
space around the event horizon (The distortion is
caused by the spinning of the black hole, which
"drags" the space around it.)
• Static limit - The boundary between the ergosphere
and normal space
If an object passes into the ergosphere it can still be Photo courtesy NASA
ejected from the black hole by gaining energy from Artist concept of a black
the hole's rotation. hole and its surroundings:
The blackened circle is the
However, if an object crosses the event horizon, it event horizon and the
will be sucked into the black hole and never escape. egg-shaped region is the
What happens inside the black hole is unknown; even ergosphere.
our current theories of physics do not apply in the
vicinity of a singularity.
Even though we cannot see a black hole, it does have three properties that can or
could be measured:
• Mass
• Electric charge
• Rate of rotation (angular momentum)
As of now, we can only measure the mass of the black hole reliably by the movement
of other objects around it. If a black hole has a companion (another star or disk of
material), it is possible to measure the radius of rotation or speed of orbit of the
material around the unseen black hole. The mass of the black hole can be calculated
using Kepler's Modified Third Law of Planetary Motion or rotational motion.

How We Detect Black Holes

Although we cannot see black holes, we can detect or guess the presence of one by
measuring its effects on objects around it. The following effects may be used:
• Mass estimates from objects orbiting a black hole or spiraling into the core
• Gravitational lens effects
• Emitted radiation
Mass
Many black holes have objects around them, and by looking at the behavior of the
objects you can detect the presence of a black hole. You then use measurements of
the movement of objects around a suspected black hole to calculate the black hole's
mass.

What you look for is a star or a disk of gas that is behaving as though there were a
large mass nearby. For example, if a visible star or disk of gas has a "wobbling"
motion or spinning AND there is not a visible reason for this motion AND the invisible
reason has an effect that appears to be caused by an object with a mass greater than
three solar masses (too big to be a neutron star), then it is possible that a black hole
is causing the motion. You then estimate the mass of the black hole by looking at the
effect it has on the visible object.
For example, in the core of galaxy NGC 4261, there is a brown, spiral-shaped disk
that is rotating. The disk is about the size of our solar system, but weighs 1.2 billion
times as much as the sun. Such a huge mass for a disk might indicate that a black
hole is present within the disk.

Photo courtesy NASA/Space Telescope Science Institute

Credit: L. Ferrarese (Johns Hopkins University) and NASA
Hubble Space Telescope image of the core of galaxy
NGC 4261
Gravity Lens
Einstein's General Theory of Relativity predicted that gravity could bend space.
This was later confirmed during a solar eclipse when a star's position was measured
before, during and after the eclipse. The star's position shifted because the light from
the star was bent by the sun's gravity. Therefore, an object with immense gravity
(like a galaxy or black hole) between the Earth and a distant object could bend the
light from the distant object into a focus, much like a lens can. This effect can be
seen in the image below.

Photo courtesy NASA/Space Telescope Science Institute

Credit: NASA and Dave Bennett (University of Notre Dame)
These images show the brightening of MACHO-96-
BL5 from ground-based telescopes (left) and the
Hubble Space Telescope (right).
In the above image, the brightening of MACHO-96-BL5 happened when a
gravitational lens passed between it and the Earth. When the Hubble Space
Telescope looked at the object, it saw two images of the object close together, which
indicated a gravitational lens effect. The intervening object was unseen. Therefore, it
was concluded that a black hole had passed between Earth and the object.
Emitted Radiation
When material falls into a black hole from a companion star, it gets heated to millions
of degrees Kelvin and accelerated. The superheated materials emit X-rays, which can
be detected by X-ray telescopes such as the orbiting Chandra X-ray Observatory.
 Photo courtesy CXC/S.Lee
Schematic of a black hole in a binary system,
showing the accretion disk around the black hole
and emission of X-rays
The star Cygnus X-1 is a strong X-ray source and is considered to be a good
candidate for a black hole. As pictured above, stellar winds from the companion star,
HDE 226868, blow material onto the accretion disk surrounding the black hole. As
this material falls into the black hole, it emits X-rays, as seen in this image:
 Photo courtesy NASA/CXC
X-ray image of Cygnus X-1 taken from orbiting
Chandra X-ray Observatory
In addition to X-rays, black holes can also eject materials at high speeds to form jets.
Many galaxies have been observed with such jets. Currently, it is thought that these
galaxies have supermassive black holes (billions of solar masses) at their centers that
produce the jets as well as strong radio emissions. One such example is the galaxy
M87 as shown below:

Photo courtesy NASA

Schematic diagram of active galactic nucleus with a
supermassive black hole at its center

Photo courtesy NASA/Space Telescope Science Institute

Credit: NRAO, NSF, Associate Universities, Inc., NASA, and
John Biretta (STScI/Johns Hopkins University)
The images on the left and bottom are ground-based
radiotelescope images of the heart of galaxy M87.
The image on the right is a visible image from the
 Hubble Space Telescope. Note the jet of material
coming from M87.
It is important to remember that black holes are not cosmic vacuum cleaners-- they
will not consume everything. So although we cannot see black holes, there is indirect
evidence that they exist. They have been associated with time travel and wormholes
and remain fascinating objects in the universe