Beyond Light
Regions of spacetime where gravity is so extreme that nothing, not even light, can escape once it crosses the event horizon.
At the center lies a singularity, a point of infinite density where the known laws of physics break down. All matter that crosses the event horizon is inevitably drawn toward it.
Black holes slowly evaporate over unimaginable timescales through Hawking radiation, a quantum mechanical process predicted by Stephen Hawking in 1974. A stellar-mass black hole would take longer than the age of the universe to evaporate.
Near a black hole, time slows dramatically due to extreme gravitational fields. An observer falling in would experience time normally, but to an outside observer, they would appear to slow down and freeze at the event horizon.
As you approach a black hole, tidal forces stretch you vertically and compress you horizontally in a process called spaghettification. For a stellar-mass black hole, this would happen before you reach the event horizon.
Minimum mass
~3 solar masses
Event horizon
Proportional to mass
Escape velocity
> speed of light
Temperature
Near absolute zero (exterior)
Interior temperature
Unknown (singularity)
Nearest known
Gaia BH1, ~1,560 ly
Sagittarius A*
4M solar masses, 26,000 ly
Largest known
TON 618, 66 billion solar masses
No.
Crossing the event horizon of a stellar-mass black hole would spaghettify you in milliseconds. For a supermassive black hole, you could cross the horizon without immediate harm, but escape would be impossible. Either way, the singularity awaits.
3-100 solar masses
Formed when massive stars (25+ solar masses) collapse at the end of their lives. The Milky Way likely contains hundreds of millions of stellar black holes.
100-100,000 solar masses
The rarest and most mysterious type. May form from the merger of stellar black holes or the collapse of massive gas clouds in the early universe.
Millions to billions of solar masses
Found at the center of nearly every large galaxy. Sagittarius A*, at the center of the Milky Way, has a mass of 4 million Suns. Their formation mechanism remains debated.