Mind-blowing facts about the Universe<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/li>

What is gravity?<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/li>

Why does it take light from galaxies so long to reach us?<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/li><\/ul>The image of the supermassive black hole in galaxy M87. What would happen if you fell into one? Credit: EHT Collaboration<\/figcaption><\/figure>
A matter of space and time<\/strong><\/h2>
Imagine you could indeed survive the fall into a black hole and the passage through a black hole\u2019s \u2018event horizon\u2019 \u2013 the point of no return for in-falling matter and light.<\/p>
What you would see and what would happen to you if would depend on precisely when you fell into the black hole.<\/p>
This is because the interiors of black holes evolve with time.<\/p>
Past the event horizon, space-time<\/a> is so distorted that space becomes time and time becomes space.<\/p>
Thus, the way to the centre of the hole is not a direction in space, but a direction in time.<\/p>
This explains why the point of infinite density, or \u2018singularity\u2019, at the centre is unavoidable.<\/p>
You can\u2019t avoid it just as you can\u2019t avoid tomorrow.<\/p>
If you fell into a supermassive black hole soon after it formed, you would reach the singularity within a few hours.<\/p>
$\"Astronomers$
Astronomers captured the first ever image of Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the centre of our Galaxy What would happen if you fell in? Credit: EHT Collaboration<\/figcaption><\/figure>
The tidal forces as you approached the singularity would be so powerful and unpredictable that not only would you be torn apart, but so would space and time.<\/p>
They would fragment into droplets, destroying any concept of past and future.<\/p>
Things are better, however, if you fall into a black hole long after it has formed.<\/p>
If it\u2019s rotating, a buckle in space-time, like a ruck in a carpet, will form roughly halfway between the horizon and the singularity.<\/p>
Here, material falling into the black hole piles up and eventually creates a new singularity.<\/p>
And, crucially, this late singularity will not be as violent.<\/p>
$\"Cone-shaped$
Cone-shaped shadows emanating from the bright centre of galaxy IC 5063 could be cast by the dusty ring surrounding the supermassive black hole at its centre. Credit: NASA, ESA, STScI and W.P. Maksym (CfA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>
Some theorists believe it might be possible to reach the late singularity without being ripped apart.<\/p>
It might even be possible to pass through it, some think into the outside Universe in the far-future, while others believe you might reappear in another universe entirely.<\/p>
Video interview: What is a black hole?<\/strong><\/h2>
<\/div><\/figure>This article originally appeared in the September 2006 issue of <\/strong><\/em>BBC Sky at Night Magazine<\/strong>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n<hr class=\"no-tts wp-block-separator\"\/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you fell into a black hole, could you survive? What would happen, and what would you see? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":56270,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"3"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/03\/this-is-what-would-happen-if-you-fell-into-a-black-hole.jpg",1200,800,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/03\/this-is-what-would-happen-if-you-fell-into-a-black-hole-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/03\/this-is-what-would-happen-if-you-fell-into-a-black-hole-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/03\/this-is-what-would-happen-if-you-fell-into-a-black-hole-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/03\/this-is-what-would-happen-if-you-fell-into-a-black-hole-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/03\/this-is-what-would-happen-if-you-fell-into-a-black-hole.jpg",1200,800,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/03\/this-is-what-would-happen-if-you-fell-into-a-black-hole.jpg",1200,800,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"If you fell into a black hole, could you survive? What would happen, and what would you see?","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/56269"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}