Quote (AEtheric @ Mar 3 2010 01:22pm)

We can look at Alpha Centauri with a telescope. We cannot do the same with a black hole, all we can see is gravitational lensing which is indirect evidence at best.

Quote (nitrojsp @ Mar 3 2010 08:11pm)

i never lived in a black hole before

Quote (xxxxmaniacxxxx @ Mar 3 2010 09:56pm)

That's where pikachu is from retard

Quote (JukeBOXX @ 16 Feb 2010 23:36)

I have been reading several definitions of what a black hole is, how it is formed etc

But the people who wrote the explanations either know nothing and are trying to make it seem like they do, or they have no idea how to speak English using huge words that only physicist would understand and not 99% of the worlds population.

So could anyone explain just these few things to me without using unnecessary 'smart' words.

What is it?

What happens if something goes into one?

How is it formed?

I seen pictures of it in space and it just looks like a hurricane/cyclone cloud system, but some other sciency 3d picture showed it as a pure black bubble..

Quote (ECK9PA7 @ Mar 2 2010 08:17pm)

According to the general theory of relativity, a black hole is a region of space from which nothing, including light, can escape. It is the result of the deformation of spacetime caused by a very compact mass. Around a black hole there is an undetectable surface which marks the point of no return, called an event horizon. It is called "black" because it absorbs all the light that hits it, reflecting nothing, just like a perfect black body in thermodynamics. Under the theory of quantum mechanics black holes possess a temperature and emit Hawking radiation.

Despite its invisible interior, a black hole can be observed through its interaction with other matter. A black hole can be inferred by tracking the movement of a group of stars that orbit a region in space. Alternatively, when gas falls into a stellar black hole from a companion star, the gas spirals inward, heating to very high temperatures and emitting large amounts of radiation that can be detected from earthbound and Earth-orbiting telescopes.

Astronomers have identified numerous stellar black hole candidates, and have also found evidence of supermassive black holes at the center of galaxies. After observing the motion of nearby stars for 16 years, in 2008 astronomers found compelling evidence that a supermassive black hole of more than 4 million solar masses is located near the Sagittarius A* region in the center of the Milky Way galaxy.

Quote (og20 @ Mar 5 2010 04:14pm)

and people still dont belive in god lol

Quote (Azrad @ Mar 4 2010 12:26am)

You look at photons from a cross section of sky and interpret them as the existence of a star in a certain location.
You look at photons from a cross section of sky and interpret them as the existence of a black hole in a certain location.

Your "direct" observation of a star is not really direct, just simpler.

Quote (AEtheric @ Mar 5 2010 12:43pm)

:/  Nice job trying to make it look like they're the same thing when they're not. Not all gravitational lensing of light is from a black hole or is evidence of a black hole, whereas light from a star is always light from a star.