It’s the ultimate galactic thrill ride.
How close could you get… how far could you
go… before you met instant death by black
hole?
Black holes form in the explosive collapse
of giant stars.
Billions are thought to roam our galaxy, from
3 – 10s of times the mass of our sun.
A few grow to gigantic size, at the centers
of galaxies, weighing in at millions or billions
of times the mass of the sun.
Imagine a future race of space travelers.
On a mission to explore obscure corners of
the galaxy.
An ominous dark sun rises… a black hole
beckons.
Scientists and space travelers have long known
to stay away.
To approach is to fall under its irresistible
gravitational spell.
The strength of the black hole’s gravity
rises so sharply… that it will steadily
pull the spacecraft apart… until it’s
no more than a stream of subatomic particles.
Spagettification.
If the black hole is much, much larger, then
its gravity is spread out over a greater distance.
The ship accelerates in… but the crew survives
to behold Nature’s magnificence.
An outside observer would watch as your ship
approaches the event horizon…
then disappears behind it.
You are still alive… but not for long.
A ring of superheated gas is spinning around
the black hole’s core. That’s where the
mission ends… incineration.
