• Question: in a black hole when the gravitional pulls the light in towards it where does the light go?

    Asked by curtis to Jamie, Jodie, Kat, Mark, Niamh on 21 Mar 2011 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Jamie Pringle

      Jamie Pringle answered on 16 Mar 2011:

      Hello curtis,

      As far as I understand it (and Im not an expert in this field by any means!), no-one knows for sure. No-one has even proved that Black holes exist, they just have data to suggest they might be around. One theory is of course a worm-hole, going to another, alternative Universe but it is all theory at the moment.

      There’s some interesting stuff on the NASA website here: http://apod.nasa.gov/htmltest/rjn_bht.html

    • Photo: Niamh Nic Daeid

      Niamh Nic Daeid answered on 16 Mar 2011:

      Hi Curtis

      Black holes are predicted to be one of the final outcomes for a collapsing star at the end of its life. Its suggested that an ‘event horizon’ (which is a type of boundary) is formed when a black hole is created and this horizon absorbs light with out reflecting any which is why it looks black

    • Photo: Mark Hill

      Mark Hill answered on 17 Mar 2011:

      Hi Curtis,

      I am really sorry. This is well outside my knowledge. Maybe someone in the Space Zone has an answer for this.

      What I believe is the current thought is that all light and other matter is focussed down to a pin point. The gravity is so great that nothing can escape and it is all compressed. No one really knows. All that we can detect is thought to be radiation from the event horizon. Sorry that I cannot help more.

      Mark.

    • Photo: Jodie Dunnett

      Jodie Dunnett answered on 21 Mar 2011:

      I don’t know tha answer to this I’m afraid! This looks like a really informative website though: http://hubblesite.org/explore_astronomy/black_holes/home.html

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