Black Holes

By: A. Lotufo

Black holes – one of the biggest space topics. What are they, why do they attract, and, ultimately, how do we even know about them? First off, let us start with the basics: what is a black hole?
                 
A black hole is a region in space where there is a very large quantity of matter packed in very tiny spaces – making it so dense, that the gravity just below its surface attracts everything; not even light can escape. Astronomers saw the first signs of black holes in 1964, besides the theory having been around for a while. Black holes are created when massive stars run out of fuel and explode in supernovae.
 
Nevertheless, black holes absorb light, so we cannot see them directly. We know about them and can see them as scientists can detect black holes by looking at what is falling into it – it travels at such a high speed that it glows with heat, which can be detected. Furthermore, when a black hole’s gravity pulls on other things, like stars, they eventually orbit an “empty” space, which can be found to be a black hole. 
 
As much as the knowledge available to us is already massive, the questions are endless – amongst many other doubts, we still do not know what is inside a black hole. What we do know is that black holes aren’t that rare. As a matter of fact, most galaxies which are the size of the Milky Way have a monster black hole in their centres. Ours is called Sagittarius A*. Moreover, black holes act as particle accelerators – in the centre of galaxies, monster black holes can launch particles to near light speed.
 
There is so much to still be learnt about black holes, but it is important to acknowledge we have already learnt so much in so little time. As stated before, they were discovered only 61 years ago. However, many aspects of black holes are still a mystery, and remain unknown.