From what they are, to their unbelievable size and what that means for the universe
at large, join us as we reveal to you the scale of black holes.
11.
What Are Black Holes?
Before we dive into the massive size and scope of Black Holes, it's important to know exactly
what they are.
Because while you might have a lose definition as to what they are what they do, they're
actually far more complex than you might realize.
Which is why many people in NASA and other space programs are fascinated by them.
If you're looking for a technical definition, this is how NASA describes Black Holes:
"A black hole is a place in space where gravity pulls so much that even light cannot get out.
The gravity is so strong because matter has been squeezed into a tiny space.
This can happen when a star is dying."
This singularity as it is often called is a bit of a mystery in space, and for a very
good reason.
You see, black holes can form in large sizes, small sizes, and sometimes they don't even
need a fully fledged star to form at all!
Which is scary in the sense that it means black holes can form in various ways.
Plus, since no light can actually escape them, it means that they can't technically be seen
by anyone.
That being said, it's easy to "see their work", as the intense gravity of the Black Holes
is enough to stretch objects from their "starting point" and slowly pull them to the Black Hole.
This is known as spaghettification, because like a stretched piece of spaghetti, the object
will get thinner and thinner until nothings exists but particles.
And if you think that a Black Hole is limited in what it can absorb, you would be wrong.
Very wrong in fact.
If it is close enough, it'll break down a star, a planet, multiple stars and planets
at once, etc.
It's a question of range more than anything.
But there's a catch to that, as you won't be able to observe the spaghettification yourself.
Why?
Remember, no light escapes the void that is the Black Hole, so because of that, you'll
see the last known position of the object that light allows you to see.
It'll seem like they're stuck in place and slowly going away until they're gone.
When in fact, they or it will be slowly pulled apart.
So yeah, black holes are scary things.
But do you want to know what's scarier...? 10.
Everything Can Be A Black Hole As we noted earlier, one of the main ways
for a Black Hole to be born is to have a star collapse upon itself with such pressure that
a Black Hole is a result.
However, technically speaking, just about anything in the universe can become a Black
Hole.
How's that for a scary thought?
It's true though, and that's one of the big "scaling" factors that you need to take into
account when you're talking about Black Holes.
In fact, there's actually a scarier thought that you need to consider, and that's that
black holes could technically be all around you right now.
The only reason you're not feeling their affects is that they're not large enough to exert
their own gravity.
The scale of a Black Hole is referred to as the Schwarzschild Radius.
And becoming a Black Hole is impendent on you becoming so small and so dense that you
can fit into this radius, and then potentially expand upon it.
For example, a human being can become a Black Hole if condensed enough.
However, the pressure needed to do that would not only be enormous, you could have to be
shrunk 1 sextillion times smaller than a grain of sand.
That's REALLY small.
However, there is good news and bad news on that front.
Because scale is an important factor in regards to how long a black hole lasts.
9.
Scale = Life Span If you ever wonder about the life span of
Black Holes, you're not alone, because the major ones can seemingly last for millions,
if not billions, of years because of the mass that is within the densely packed core.
However, with the Black Holes that are "everywhere", they aren't so lucky.
Because Black Holes exude Hawking Radiation, and that radiation (named after legendary
scientist Stephen Hawking) actually hurts the Black Holes the more it's released.
To the extent that after a while, with enough Hawking Radiation emitted, the Black Hole
itself will die out.
Via evaporation of all things.
Why does this matter?
Well, for the "tiny" Black Holes that are technically everywhere, they don't last long
enough to make an impact, because they evaporate after being "made".
For example, if you were to take a massive 747 jet and condense it into a Black Hole
(which is possible), you'd be able to enjoy your victory for a mere second before it's
gone.
The CERN Hardon Collider has been able to make Black Holes themselves with the collision
of certain particles.
And they were only able to make it for a fraction of a second.
So as you can see, with Black Holes, size does matter, because the bigger they are,
the more they're able to stick around.
But...if you were to do that...that's when the bad news happens...
8.
Death = Release of Energy Black Holes are mysterious not just because
of their creation, but what happens when they "die".
If that "jet black hole" that we made were to be created and then die out, it wouldn't
just vanish in the blink of an eye and then we'd live our lives.
Rather, upon its death, a massive release of energy would take place.
How massive?
5 million megatons of TNT big, For the record, that is totally enough to destroy the Earth,
and then some.
Which is why people have to be VERY careful when trying to "make" their own Black Holes,
because if you give it too much mass upon creation, it'll quite literally backfire when
it dies.
But that's the weird thing, no one is quite sure why the release of energy happens at
all.
After all, no one is sure what's in the middle/center of a Black Hole, and even if it's alive for
a second, that would mean that something within that "empty space" has the potential to blow
up the Earth.
And, if that small of a black hole could kill the Earth, imagine what the death of a major
black hole can do?
Yeah, a very scary thought indeed.
7.
The Earth As A Black Hole Let's talk about bigger black holes for a
bit.
And for a visual example, let's imagine that somehow, someway, the entire Earth was transformed
into a Black Hole.
For the record, this is almost impossible barring a major outside force, so it's not
something to panic about.
However, it is something to ponder.
Can you guess how big the black hole would be if it was made from the entire condensed
Earth?
Recall that this wouldn't just be the earth's crust and core, but all the people and all
the cities and structures that make up Earth as well.
That's a lot of mass, right?
And yet, the Black Hole that would be created wouldn't be larger than that of a penny.
That's right, the Earth would become a penny.
Yet that's not the weirdest part.
Because you'd think that the sudden disappearance of the Earth would wreck havoc on the solar
system, right?
Wrong.
Because of the mass of the black hole, the gravity that is exuded from it would be the
same as Earth.
Which means that our moon would have the very same gravity as before.
So technically speaking, while we would all be gone, the solar system itself would be
perfectly fine.
More or less.
6.
The Sun as a Black Hole But what about a larger object?
A MUCH larger object even?
What if a Black Hole was made of something like...our sun?
A good question, one that would have somewhat different results due to the major size difference.
For example, while the Earth Black Hole would be the size of a penny give or take, the Sun
Black Hole that would be made would actually be about 2 miles long.
That may not seem like a big deal, but it's rather significant in its own right.
Plus, unlike say the Earth Black Hole we made, the Sun Black Hole would actually have the
potential to grow even larger.
That's because Black Holes have the ability to grow via collecting mass from nearby objects,
particles, and more.
The Sun is next to Mercury, which technically could be absorbed into the Sun Black Hole
if its close enough.
It wouldn't be immediate, but it's a likely possibility if the black hole continues to
grow.
Speaking of which...
5.
Time = Growth While it's true that the tiniest of black
holes don't last long because they don't have mass, the bigger ones don't have that limitation.
In fact, as noted, they can grow via absorbing just about anything with mass that's around
them.
That includes being able to absorb other black holes!
So you might ask, what is the smallest black hole detected out in the universe?
That would be XTE J1650-500.
When it was discovered, it had a radius of about 12 kilometers, That's about the size
of Manhattan.
All of it.
The whole island.
But remember, that's just the size of the Black Hole, the mass of it would be about
10 of our suns!
While this is the smallest known black hole, it may not stay small forever.
Space is full of things that are crossing black holes like these, and if that continues
to happen, the size of the black hole will grow until it's something much larger.
Like...
4.
Larger Black Hole Examples If you want to know some the bigger, and scarier,
black holes in the world, then let me give you an example.
GCIRS 13E may sound like a tax form, but it's actually a black hole...possibly.
There's a little bit of a debate going on as to whether this particular black hole exists.
Mainly because if it IS real, then its size would be the entire continent of Europe.
Which is legitimately terrifying to think about.
And again, that's just the size, the mass in it is almost frightening to consider...so
I won't mention it.
Ok, yes I will, there are about 1300 suns mass wise in that black hole.
What's scarier though?
That's still not the biggest black hole out there.
Let's look at HLX-1, a black hole that makes the IRS Black Hole (insert your own joke here)
look tiny in comparison, despite it being classified as an "intermediate" class of black
hole.
This massive black hole is nearly 300,000 kilometers long.
Which for the record is like if you took Jupiter, cloned it three more times, and then put the
4 Jupiters next to each other in a line.
All the while having a mass of a hundred thousand suns.
And yet, they still get bigger.
3.
Supermassive Class Yes, you read that right, there is a class
of black hole known as Supermassive Class, and ironically enough, one can be found in
the middle of the Milky Way Galaxy.
It's called Sagittarius A, and it's 12.7 million kilometers in length.
And its mass?
It's equal to 4.3 million of our suns.
That's mind-boggling in all the right ways, and the wrong ones.
But as massive, as supermassive as this black hole is, there is still one that towers over
it.
2.
Destroyer Of Worlds Out there, somewhere in space is a Black Hole
known as S50014+81.
This Black Hole is so massive and scary that it has arguably the most perfect nickname
ever given to an object, "Destroyer Of Worlds".
Not only that, this black hole is literally in a class of its own, the Ultra Massive Class.
You know you're special if you get your own class of identification.
It's radius is 1600 AU, or Astronomical Unit.
Which for the record, 1 AU is the distance between the Earth and the Sun.
So take that distance, times it by 1600, and you get the Destroyer of Worlds.
The mass of this black hole is that of 40 billion suns.
And again, because of how Black Holes work, if anything, ANYTHING gets into the gravity
field of this entity, it will be absorbed, and allow the black hole to grow even larger.
Which is almost unfathomable to think about.
But despite that fact, despite that kind of terror in our universe, there's ONE MORE THING
that you have to understand about the scale of black holes...
1.
There Could Be Even Bigger Ones Out There Yeah, I know, it sounds crazy but that's the
thing about space that you NEED to understand, there's always more to find.
The observable universe is about 93 billion light years across, and we still don't know
everything that hides within those confines.
Plus, did you notice I said, "The Observable Universe"?
That means the side of the universe that we can see, and the universe is growing at a
steady rate all the time.
Which means that, theoretically, there could be more black holes out there of astronomical
sizes that make the Destroyer of World looks a dot on a screen.
When will we find that Black Hole?
No one knows, but it could be sooner than you think, or it could happen sometimes down
the road.
The universe is the only one who can decide that.
Thanks for watching everyone!
What did you think about this lesson in black holes and the incredible (and frightening)
scale of them?
Do you have a new found respect for black holes now?
What was your reaction to some of the facts we revealed?
Let me know in the comments below, be sure to subscribe, and I'll see you next time on
the channel!