Astrophysical object
Black Hole
Cosmology & UniverseEstablished Science
Definition
A region of spacetime where gravity is so strong that nothing, not even light, can escape.
Scientific overview
A black hole forms when matter is compressed within its Schwarzschild radius, creating an event horizon. General relativity predicts them, and they are now confirmed through stellar orbits, X-ray binaries, gravitational waves, and direct imaging of their shadows.
Evidence
- Orbits of stars around Sagittarius A*
- Gravitational waves from black-hole mergers (LIGO)
- Direct images of M87* and Sgr A* (EHT)
Open questions
- What happens to information that falls in?
- What is inside the event horizon?
Rests on
Related discoveries & objects
Related scientists
Knowledge connections
- Related toThe Event Horizon
- Related toHawking Radiation
- Related toAccretion Disk
- Related toThe Schwarzschild Radius
- Related toGravitational Waves
- Depends onThe Event Horizon
- Depends onGravitational Singularity
- Depends onThe Schwarzschild Radius
- Depends onGeneral Relativity
- Related toThe First Image of a Black Hole
- Related toThe Milky Way's Central Black Hole
- Related toThe First Detection of Gravitational Waves
- Studied byStephen Hawking
- Studied byReinhard Genzel
- Studied byAndrea Ghez
- Studied bySubrahmanyan Chandrasekhar
- Related toSagittarius A*
- Related toM87*
- Related toSupermassive Black Hole
- Related toIntermediate-Mass Black Hole
- Related toStellar-Mass Black Hole
- Related toPrimordial Black Hole
- Associated withSchwarzschild Radius
- Associated withThe Ergosphere
Sources & references
The primary and reference sources this topic draws on.
- NASANational Aeronautics and Space Administration
Mission data, planetary science, space telescopes, and public-domain imagery.
Most NASA-produced imagery is in the public domain; individual items are checked for usage terms before publication.
- Event Horizon TelescopeEvent Horizon Telescope Collaboration
Horizon-scale images of supermassive black holes (M87*, Sagittarius A*).