- #1
Grass_Hopper
- 4
- 0
Does a black hole have "shape?"
Today I was watching the Science Channel and a program on the Hubble telescope was on. It was said that pictures of black holes have been taken not by the Hubble, but by another similar device that takes pictures of Gamma and/or X rays.
This sparked an interest in attempting to learn more about black holes... and every thing I've read has had my head swimming in theory and terms I cannot ever hope to understand. I am fascinated by celestial bodies and the universe as we know it, but I severely lack the cognitive capacity to discuss or understand this topic at the level that would satisfy my curiosity. So I'm looking for "dumbed down" answers, if that's possible.
While trying to comprehend a black hole I asked myself: "If a black hole could be observed from a distance beyond the event horizon, what would it look like? Would it be 2 dimensional? Would it be spherical?" For example, picture a light bulb as you flip the switch and the bulb turns on. The light emitted bursts outward from all direction to bathe the room in white light. Would a black hole be the "opposite" of this happening, where all matter and light is pulled into the center of the bulb?
And also, if all matter approaching the black hole gets "sucked in" where does it go? I was always under the impression that matter cannot "disappear," all matter goes somewhere. So if this statement (and my school teacher) is correct, then by my limited understanding a black hole would never stop growing until the universe collapses into itself. This is where my comprehension overloads and I reach a logical paradox. To further this quandary, what happens if 2 black holes grow so immense that they "touch?"
Today I was watching the Science Channel and a program on the Hubble telescope was on. It was said that pictures of black holes have been taken not by the Hubble, but by another similar device that takes pictures of Gamma and/or X rays.
This sparked an interest in attempting to learn more about black holes... and every thing I've read has had my head swimming in theory and terms I cannot ever hope to understand. I am fascinated by celestial bodies and the universe as we know it, but I severely lack the cognitive capacity to discuss or understand this topic at the level that would satisfy my curiosity. So I'm looking for "dumbed down" answers, if that's possible.
While trying to comprehend a black hole I asked myself: "If a black hole could be observed from a distance beyond the event horizon, what would it look like? Would it be 2 dimensional? Would it be spherical?" For example, picture a light bulb as you flip the switch and the bulb turns on. The light emitted bursts outward from all direction to bathe the room in white light. Would a black hole be the "opposite" of this happening, where all matter and light is pulled into the center of the bulb?
And also, if all matter approaching the black hole gets "sucked in" where does it go? I was always under the impression that matter cannot "disappear," all matter goes somewhere. So if this statement (and my school teacher) is correct, then by my limited understanding a black hole would never stop growing until the universe collapses into itself. This is where my comprehension overloads and I reach a logical paradox. To further this quandary, what happens if 2 black holes grow so immense that they "touch?"