Want to get up to speed on black holes? We’ve got you covered! A black hole is an object so dense that not even light can escape it. #BlackHoleWeek⚫ 1/6 go.nasa.gov/3OOqRNd
A black hole’s “surface” is its event horizon. Inside this boundary you’d have to go faster than light, the fastest thing in the universe, to escape the black hole. 2/6
The two main types of black holes that have been extensively observed are stellar-mass and supermassive. The type depends on how much stuff is crammed inside. Tens of times our Sun’s mass for a stellar-mass one; millions to billions for a supermassive one! 3/6
Stellar-mass black holes form when a huge star (one with at least 20 times the mass of our Sun) runs out of fuel. It collapses under its own weight and leaves behind a crushed remnant in the form of a black hole. 4/6
Supermassive black holes reside at the centers of most (and maybe all) large galaxies. Scientists are still trying to figure out where they come from. But we do know that they existed in the very earliest days of a galaxy’s lifetime. 5/6
What’s between the stellar and supermassive ones? “Intermediate mass” black holes have been elusive, but our telescopes have spied a few candidates and we’re eager to learn more about them! 6/6
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