Mechanism of Black Holes - Research Paper Example

the term “black hole” refers to a region of space-time from which the gravitational pull is so strong that it does not allow anything, including light, to escape (Begelman, 2003), which implies that black holes cannot be observed. This essay will explore the concept of black holes, that is, all that is currently known about this phenomenon, how they are formed, and what can be learnt from them; similarly, this essay will also highlight how black holes are detected and how they are made. The appearance of an event horizon, the boundary in space-time through which matter and light are attracted inwards towards the mass of the black hole becoming trapped permanently, is the most distinguishable feature of a black hole.

As noted earlier, not even light can escape from a black hole since anything that draws nearer and crosses the event horizon boundary is trapped due to the strong gravitational pull that defines black holes (Kormendy, Bender & Cornell, 2011); an event horizon is thus called since if an event occurs within the boundary, this information is never known to an outside observer. Einstein’s theory of relativity argues that the presence of mass distorts spacetime thereby causing the paths taken by particles to bend towards the mass and given that this deformation is so strong at the event horizon, no paths can lead away from the black hole because all matter is trapped inside, including light (Hooft, 2009).

Precisely, an object falling into a black hole appears to slow down as it draws nearer to the event horizon but never really reaches it, due to the gravitational time dilation effect (Nrumiano, n.d). Similarly, an outside observer will experience all processes on an object nearing the event horizon as slowed down, and the emitted light will appear dimmer and redder due to the gravitational redshift effect; as soon as the falling object reaches the event horizon, it becomes so dim that it can never be seen.

Black holes often form at the ends of the