for the n'th time, scientific theory != theory in common language, what you are referring to is hypothesis. The existence of black holes is pretty much a fact but its nature is hypothesized, see Hawking radiation etc.

well, a star collapses on its own weight, and gets compressed into something extremely small. because all this weight is squished together, it has a big gravitational pull. (gravity is based on the weight of the object that pulls, not the size). this gravitational field pulls in everything in a given distance. everything that gets sucked in becomes compressed into where the remains of the star are, making the total weight higher, and therefore making the gravity stronger (can pull objects from farther away, and less things can escape). black holes are so strong that they can even pull light into themselves. because the light cant escape, we dont see what is inside the hole, and it appears black.

thats about as simple as i can put it

oh and when things get sucked in, they get ripped into an infinite number of pieces, making the core have next to no size, but a huge amount of weight.

This post was edited by SmashMaster on Dec 19 2008 06:00pm

the "core" literally has no volume, and by weight you mean mass

yea, just trying to make it simple

Could a black hole pull in dark matter?

i doubt we know enough about either to make a conclusion

I would assume yes because if dark matter exist and our method of detecting it is gravitational microscoping meaning it has a gravitational pull on other objects then it should be affected by a black hole or it should affect a black hole but thats just my idea

gravity is based on mass not density so it would have the same gravitational attraction as the original star that collapsed. this is actually a method of detecting black holes, that is the planets that were apart of the star system end up orbiting around no discernible star. in most cases, it would have less mass because of the resulting supernova (big fucking implosion/explosion) before the collapse.

They definitely exist, we are 100% sure of this.

Technically, any theories we have about black/dark/anti matter is that resists gravitational pull right? Its like the counter force...well from whatever I've read at least.