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Black holes are not monsters waiting to devour the galaxy

Almost everyone has heard the term black hole in science fiction movies or popular television shows, but surprisingly few people know exactly what these mysterious cosmic objects actually are.

Almost everyone has heard the term black hole in science fiction movies or popular television shows, but surprisingly few people know exactly what these mysterious cosmic objects actually are.

In the simplest terms, a black hole is a place in space where gravity pulls so forcefully that even light cannot escape its grasp. Because no light can get out, they are completely invisible to the human eye. Space telescopes with special instruments are required to find them by observing how their extreme gravity affects the stars and gases surrounding them.

Black holes are not monsters waiting to devour the galaxy Back to video

To understand what a black hole is, we must first look at how they are born. The most common type, known as a stellar black hole, forms at the end of the life cycle of a massive star.

When a star that is at least three times more massive than our sun completely exhausts its internal........

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