Black Holes in Space

B L A C K H O L E S I N S P A C E

There is much more to black holes than meets the eye. In fact, your eyes, even with the aid of the most advanced telescope, will never see a black hole in space. The reason is that the matter within a black hole is so dense and has so great a gravitational pull that it prevents even light from escaping.

Like other electromagnetic radiation (radio waves, infrared rays, ultraviolet radiation, X-rays, and gamma radiation), light is the fastest traveler in the Universe. It moves at nearly 300,000 kilometers (about 186,000 miles) per second. At such a speed, you could circle the Earth seven times between heartbeats.

If light can't escape a black hole, it follows that nothing else can. Consequently, there is no direct way to detect a black hole.

In fact, the principal evidence of the existence of black holes comes not from observation but from solutions to complex equations based on Einstein's Theory of General Relativity. Among other things, the calculations indicate that black holes may occur in a variety of sizes and be more abundant than most of us realize.