Black holes

📖 In short

A black hole is a place in space where gravity is so very strong that anything getting too close can't escape, not even light! That's why we can't see it: it's completely black. It usually forms when a giant star collapses at the end of its life.

🤩 Did you know?

A star thousands of kilometers across can squeeze down to a few kilometers in a second.
Light can't escape from a black hole.
There are giant black holes at the heart of most big galaxies.
Einstein's theory predicted black holes before scientists saw any.

🔎 Find out more

🌟 How does it form?

When a giant star runs out of fuel, it can't hold up its own weight, so it collapses and squeezes into a tiny space. Its gravity becomes enormous, and a black hole forms.

🔍 How do we find one?

Although we can't see a black hole, scientists know where it is from nearby stars spinning fast around it, and from gas that swirls around, heats up and glows before falling in.

💡 The first picture

In 2019 scientists took the first picture of the shadow of a huge black hole in a faraway galaxy, showing a glowing orange ring around a black circle. They used many telescopes around the world together.

🎯 A black hole in the heart of our galaxy

At the center of our galaxy, the Milky Way, is a giant black hole millions of times heavier than the Sun. But it's very far from us, so there's nothing to fear.