The secrets and mysteries of black holes -

Our universe is immense and there are sure to be numerous things out there that have yet to be explained. However, one of its most mysterious phenomena is the black hole. 

Astronomers have made the incredible and unexpected discovery of a massive black hole located in our very own galaxy. Named BH3, the stellar black hole is around three times the size of the average black hole found in the Milky Way. A stellar black hole is formed when an enormous star collapses in on itself at the end of its life. It was discovered by chance due to its incredibly powerful pull on a nearby star in the constellation of Aquila. While the average black hole is around ten times the mass of the sun, BH3 is 33 times larger than the sun. “It’s a complete surprise,” said astronomer Dr Pasquale Panuzzo, “It is the most massive stellar origin black hole in our galaxy and the second nearest discovered so far.” BH3 is located just 2,000 lightyears from Earth. The only black hole in the Milky Way that beats BH3 in terms of size is the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A* at the center of the galaxy. It was formed through the collapse of vast clouds of dust and gas. 

It seems that every month there are exciting new developments in astronomy, but how much do we really know about black holes? We answer this question and more in this gallery. Check it out! 

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What are they? -

Black holes have a huge mass. Some of them may have 100 times more mass than the Sun. The gravitational force is so intense that even light cannot escape it.

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Matter around them - Although black holes themselves are tricky to capture, the material they attract that hasn't quite fallen in yet forms a spiral around it, called an accretion disc, which can be seen.

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Physics laws - American physicist Kip Thorne has been quoted as saying that the singularity at the center of the black hole is "the point where all laws of physics break down."

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Size - The largest black hole ever found has an incredible mass of 17 billion suns. A black hole the size of a coin would have about the same mass as Earth.

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Spaghettification - This is the name given to an object stretched and destroyed by a black hole.

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Time - In theory, the closer to the event horizon of a black hole you are, the slower time feels.

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Beginning - Theories about the existence of black holes began in the 18th century.

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The first - The first object to be considered a black hole was called Cygnus X-1 and was located in the constellation Cygnus (Swan).

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Is Earth in danger? - Although it's known that the Milky Way contains several black holes, the Earth is not very close to any of them.

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The closest to Earth - According to NASA, the closest black hole to our planet is 1600 light years away.

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The sound - According to scientists, black holes emit a constant B flat note.

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Dense - They are the densest objects in the entire universe. 

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Size - According to NASA there are at least three black hole sizes: stellar, supermassive, and miniature.

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Doubts - Science has not yet discovered how supermassive black holes are formed.

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Worm holes - Several theories point to the fact that if someone or something is swallowed up by a black hole, it can be "thrown" into other parts of the universe. Many sci-fi movies use this idea. 

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Keep away from the event horizon - The event horizon is the edge of the black hole, and is seen as the point of no return. From there, it is impossible to escape the gravitational force of the hole.

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Evaporation - There is only one thing that can escape a black hole: radiation. When a black hole is emitting radiation, scientists know that it is losing mass, and that this is probably the process that leads to its extinction.

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Color -

Although they are known as black holes, not all are black. Several holes emit electromagnetic radiation that gives them other colors.

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Einstein did not discover black holes - Einstein only revived the theory of a gravitational force so strong that even light could not escape it, which was proposed by a geologist named John Michell in 1783. 

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New universes - In theory, it is possible that a black hole can create a new universe, or be the door to other universes. These theories have not yet been proven.

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Theories -

Some theories argue that not all the power of a black hole is totally destructive and that this same power can be used for various other things, including time travel.

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Capturing images of black holes -

A black hole was first captured in image form in 2019 by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), a ground-breaking collective of black-hole-imaging scientists who are now combining their expertise around the world to focus on the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy: Sagittarius A*. In 2022, they captured this image of it.

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The 2024 image -

In March 2024, the EHT released this image of Sagittarius A*. The photo shows much greater detail, capturing distinct spirals. "What we're seeing now is that there are strong, twisted, and organized magnetic fields near the black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy," said Sara Issaoun, an astrophysicist at the Harvard and Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and co-lead of the project. As techniques and technology develop, the EHT expects to make even greater advances in the coming years, capturing the black hole in video form by the end of the decade.

Sources: (NASA) (Independant)

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