A black hole is a place in space where gravity pulls so much that even light cannot get out.
WHAT IS A BLACK HOLE? Black holes are extremely dense pockets of matter, objects of such incredible mass and miniscule volume that they drastically warp the fabric of space-time.
Anything that passes too close, from a wandering star to a photon of light, gets captured.Most black holes are the condensed remnants of a massive star, the collapsed core that remains following an explosive supernova. However, the black hole family tree has several branches, from tiny structures on par with a human cell to enormous giants billions of times more massive than our sun.
Supermassive black holesSupermassive black holes have masses ranging from millions to billions of solar masses and appear to be in the center of almost all galaxies. An important area of modern astrophysics is determining how supermassive black holes came to be: Were they formed with such high masses, or did their mass build up over time? The NSF-funded Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) project is attempting to capture an image of a black hole, setting its sights on two supermassive black holes, one in the center of the galaxy Messier 87 and the other in our Milky Way.
HOW ARE BLACK HOLES STUDIED? Black holes have long inspired the imagination yet challenged discovery. However, from a combination of theory and observation, scientists now know much about these objects and how they form, and can even see how they impact their surroundings.So, how does one study a region of space that is defined by being invisible?Theorists can calculate properties of black holes based on their understanding of the universe, and such discoveries have come from a range of great thinkers, from Albert Einstein to Stephen Hawking to Kip Thorne. However, despite being so powerful, it's hard to see something that does not emit photons, let alone traps any light that passes by.Now, nearly a century after scientists suggested black holes might exist, the world now has tools to see them in action. Using powerful observatories on Earth, astronomers can see the, detect the ripples in space-time from, and may soon even peer at the disc of disrupted mass and energy that surrounds the black hole's event horizon, the edge beyond which nothing can escape.
For more than 60 years, the National Science Foundation (NSF) has significantly advanced the understanding of the universe as the federal steward for ground-based astronomy. From its first contract to build the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, NSF has funded construction and operation of some of the world's most renowned telescopes, providing scientists with world-class instrumentation and facilities.
Those investments have positioned the U.S. As a global leader in ground-based astronomy. Credit: European Southern Observatory/C.
Color in the supermassive black hole seen by the Event Horizon Telescope! If you could fly next to the supermassive black hole M87., this is what you would see. 55 million light years from Earth, at the heart of galaxy Messier 87, lies a monster black hole. Weighing in at 6.5 billion times the mass of our sun, it distorts spacetime like few objects in the universe. It has enshrouded itself in a swirling disk of super-hot energy and matter, and radiates unimaginably powerful jets above and below.Credit: Nicolle R.