I'm sure you've heard of a black hole before (If you've been reading ADYK you definitely have!) But what technically is a black hole? What is it made of? What does it do? Astronomers are still a bit uncertain about all of this, but here's what we think…
A black hole is defined as a singularity in space. This means that it is a point in space that is infinitely small and has infinite density. It's hard to think of an object like this in real life; one that can continually gain matter but stays extremely small. Most people have the impression that black holes "suck" in all the material around them. While black holes do attract matter, they are not like vacuums in outer space. Black holes warp the space time around them into giant funnels (like the cartoon above). This causes material to orbit black holes and fall towards the center, eventually falling past the point of no return. Because black holes have acquired so much mass, they have a very strong gravitational field. It's so strong that not even light can escape their grasp. This is why astronomers call them black holes. Astronomers still have so much more to learn about these bizarre objects, and as technology improves our knowledge will approve along with it.
