Uncover insight into the black hole

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NARRATOR: Black holes are among the most intriguing objects in the universe since they are invisible. A black hole is formed when a massive star dies. The core of the star collapses on itself, and its enormous mass is concentrated in an infinitely small space called a singularity. The singularity is so dense that it disturbs the surrounding portion of the universe.

The universe can be thought of as a gigantic mesh. The stars sit on the mesh, thus distorting it. The denser the celestial body, the greater the distortion it causes. In the case of an infinitely dense black hole, the distortion is infinite. This kind of black hole can be thought of as a bottomless well. Objects that pass by at a distance are not greatly affected, but those that pass by quite close are pulled toward the bottom of the well and can never escape. Light rays that pass by close to a singularity meet the same fate: they become trapped.

A black hole emits no light at all. It is invisible. However, when matter, such as the gas envelope of a star, is drawn into a black hole, it does not fall directly into the well. It starts by spiraling at a very high speed and heating up. A disk of hot, very bright matter, the accretion disk, forms around the well, signaling the presence of the black hole. This is how astronomers have been able to detect black holes in the center of a great number of galaxies.

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