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Cool Black Hole Fact - Introduction

Black Holes

Black holes are like vacuum cleaners... NOT!

A black hole has an "event horizon" which is a region inside of which you can't escape. If an object crosses the event horizon, it will invariably hit the singularity. As long as the object stays outside of the horizon, it will not get sucked in. Outside of the horizon, the gravitational field surrounding a black hole is no different from the field surrounding any other object of the same mass. A black hole is not better than any other object at "sucking in" distant objects.




 

A service of the High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center (HEASARC), Dr. Andy Ptak (Director), within the Astrophysics Science Division (ASD) at NASA/GSFC

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