How much do you know about black holes?
What would happen if you fell into one?
Say one day you were exploring space looking for a new planet for humans to inhabit, but came across a black hole and decided – why not check it out?
Would You Have any chances to Survive?
How Would You get Out?
Would there be a shortcut to another universe?
And here’s what would happen, if you fell into a black hole. Despite being “black” and a “hole”, a black hole is not a dark, empty space. In his theory of relativity, Einstein predicted how black holes are formed. When a massive star dies, it leaves a smaller, remnant core behind. If the core’s mass is at least three times bigger than the mass of our Sun, gravity overwhelms all other forces and turns the core into a black hole.
But don’t let its name fool you, but rather a huge amount of matter packed into a very small space. Think of the Sun with its gravitational field 28 times stronger than Earth’s. If you were to walk on the Sun, you’d be 28 times heavier than you are on Earth. Now imagine squeezing four suns into something that is just 15 miles (24 km) in diameter, the distance you can cover in a 30-minute drive.
What would the gravity be like there?
So make sure to choose a supermassive one.
The one that is a million times heavier than our Sun. In this case, your body would remain unharmed, as you cross the event horizon, as the gravity would be pulling both your feet and your head with almost the same strength. And if you’re wondering where to find one – you don’t have to look too far. There’s one right at the centre of our Milky Way galaxy.
Luckily, it’s 165 quadrillion miles (or 265 quadrillion km) away from us, and will suck neither the Sun nor the planets. Crossing the event horizon is just the beginning of the challenge. There’s a gravitational singularity at the centre of the black hole, where density becomes infinite.
You’d be squashed into that centre, and become one with the black hole. You wouldn’t be able to tell anyone about your experience. However, a person watching you from outside of the event horizon would see a very different scenario. As you were falling into a black hole, they’d see you slowing down, getting dimmer and redder. In the end, you’d just freeze, never crossing the event horizon.
This happens because space time and time in a black hole interchange their roles. At the event horizon, time comes to a standstill, while space, on the other hand, moves forward. You wouldn’t be able to turn around and escape the black hole, any more than you can travel back in time. Even when the black hole eventually died, emitting all the particles it had absorbed (including your body), it would be impossible to tell whether those particles were you.
