Black Holes
1. Black holes are the result of an enormous star (think 10 or 15 times as large of our sun) exploding in a supernova effect. The sun essentially collapses in on itself and reaches a state of zero volume but infinite density.2. Despite films such as Disney's The Black Hole showing objects anywhere near the black hole being sucked into it, this effect is a myth. To be hopelessly pulled in, you'd have to be close enough to cross its Schwarzschild radius, the point at which even light cannot escape.
3. If our sun were to experience a supernova explosion to create a black hole, we would remain in orbit around it as if the sun were still there. (Of course, in this event we'd have bigger things than a black hole to worry about, such as the loss of life-sustaining light and heat.)
4. Scientists classify black holes into two category types: stellar-mass black holes (having the mass of up to about 15 of our suns) and galaxy-mass black holes (having the mass of up to 100 billion of our suns).
5. Black holes of the stellar-mass variety (the more common type) are relatively small, ranging from roughly one mile to several dozen miles across.
6. Black holes are invisible, and cannot be seen in photographs taken by our most powerful telescopes. This is because if light were near enough to illuminate the hole, it would instead be sucked in and not make it back to us to reveal the black hole.
7. Instead of seeing the black hole itself, astronomers instead can see x-ray emissions from ionized dust and gas accumulating around the black hole, should such matter be close enough.
8. Worm holes, which would supposedly allow you to travel into a black hole and be spit out into another location or even time period, do not exist outside of Star Trek and other sci-fi works. Although possible under Einstein's theory of general relativity, scientists discount their existence as extremely unlikely and have never found evidence of any.
9. Space and time are so distorted in and around black holes, that it is said time essentially stops near them.
10. The number of black holes known to exist in observable galaxies depends on which set of criteria you accept for proving a black hole's existence. Jerome Orosz, assistant professor of astronomy at San Diego State University, documents 20 verified black holes at his website.
Source: http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov
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