Bookmark

Sign up or login to use the bookmarking feature.

Teacher Tips and Answers

Page 273

Sample Summary

The article “How do black holes form?” says that when a giant star runs out of fuel, it collapses under gravity. Some mass gets blown away in a supernova, but the rest compacts into a single point. With a mass 10 times the sun’s, the singularity draws in everything, even light. Matter and energy at the event horizon join the black hole. A whole sun can be eaten up!

Original Selection

How do black holes form?

Every star is a nuclear engine. It converts hydrogen to helium through fusion. The energy it produces pushes outward against the inward pull of gravity.

When a star uses up its nuclear fuel, gravity wins. The star collapses rapidly until the atoms crash against each other and some blow out in a supernova. If the star is really big, much of the material gets crushed down into a point called a singularity.

That point has 10 or more times the mass of our sun, so its gravity is tremendous. It pulls in anything that comes near it, even light. In fact, at a certain distance from the singularity, there’s no escape. That distance is the event horizon. That’s what people think of as the edge of the black hole.

© 2024 Thoughtful Learning. Copying is permitted.

k12.thoughtfullearning.com