The below post is gotten from the Facebook page of Miracle Chibuzor Marcel ( A graduate of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nigeria, Nsukka).
He started the post by first narrating how Blackholes are been formed. With the below post, you will not only understand what Blackhole is but also you will learn how they are formed.
Let's get down to the lecture;
According Miracle Chibuzor Marcel (A.K.A RELATIVITY), to understand a black hole, it's essential to understand stars in general.
Stars are born and stars die too. What they form at their deaths depend on their masses when at the main sequence stage.
In astronomy we often use the mass of our sun as a standard. For instance, if you say the mass of a particular star is 2 solar masses. It means it's twice the mass of our sun. And remember our sun is a star too.
The period before a star dies is called its main sequence stage.
Star masses at the main sequence stage are classified into three:
Masses between 0.5 to 8 solar masses
Masses between 8 to 20 solar masses
Masses between 20 and above.
From above, if those between 0.5 to 8 solar masses die they they do not explode, rather they shed off their outer surfaces and form planetary nebulae. This is going to be the fate of our own sun.
If those between 8 to 20 solar masses die, they explode into a supernova to form what's called a neuron star. This neutron star is the most exotic body in astronomy we'd understand fully well.
During my project while as an undergraduate I worked on neuron star.
If those between 20 solar masses explode as a supernova they form a blackhole.
WHAT IS A BLACKHOLE?
One thing I want you to understand about BH is that they have the most gravitational pull of all heavenly bodies. Their gravity is so high that not even light can escape. Since light can't escape, it's called a blackhole.
Black holes has mass but zero volume. it's pretty hard to imagine such. There's region around a BH called the event horizon. If a particle passes this region we can't see it any more. The size of a BH is a measure of this event horizon.
A very massive BH has a large event horizon while a small BH has small event horizon.
All these while we have been using a kind of a theoretical picture of a BH. Although it's not far from the real one as we noticed yesterday.
I believe as we proceed on and on we'd get an improved image of a BH and that wound foster our understanding about it.
Post by Miracle Chibuzor Marcel.
Please use the comment box to ask your questions or observations, lets talk on this together.
