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Black holes are perhaps as little studied as they are popular objects in the universe. Many science fiction writers use the image of a black hole as a huge "vacuum cleaner" in the depths of the universe, seeking to absorb everything that is nearby. Let's try to look at the black hole from a scientific point of view.

A bit of history...

For the first time, the idea of ​​such an object came to the mind of the English priest John Michell back in 1784. The idea was that for a body with a radius of 280.3 solar radii and with a density, the second space velocity on its surface would be equal to the speed of light. Thus, the light will not be able to leave this body, and it will be invisible. However, black holes began to be seriously discussed only with the advent of the theory regarding Einstein in the early 20th century.

In this article, we will not give complex mathematical formulas, limiting ourselves only to the formula for the Schwarzschild radius:

where G is the gravitational constant and c is the speed of light. A black hole with a mass equal to the mass of the Earth would have a Schwarzschild radius of 9 millimeters (that is, the Earth could become a black hole if someone could shrink it to that size). For the Sun, the Schwarzschild radius is approximately 3 kilometers.

The two most important features inherent in black holes are the presence of an event horizon and a singularity, which is separated by this horizon from the rest of the universe.

event horizon is on the Schwarzschild radius, it limits the space inside the black hole. Information about any event that occurred beyond the event horizon inside a black hole cannot cross the event horizon.

Singularity- this is a region inside a black hole, where the solutions of the equations of gravity do not have clear physical interpretations. In other words, scientists, relying on all their accumulated experience, are not yet able to give a clear answer to the question: what happens in a black hole?

How does it fall into a black hole?

Despite this, the solutions of the equations of special relativity provide an answer to an equally interesting question: how does falling into a black hole occur. For an observer inside a spacecraft heading for a black hole, its speed relative to the black hole will increase up to the speed of light.

For an observer who is far from the black hole at his observation point, the picture will be completely different. As the spacecraft approaches the black hole, information from it will arrive at the observation point with increasing delay. From the point of view of the observation point, the speed of the ship will gradually decrease as it approaches the event horizon. In order to overcome the event horizon and hide from the radar, according to the watch of the observation post, it will take infinite time.

Let's go back to the spaceship pilot. According to his own clock, he will need a fairly short time before crossing the event horizon. However, he as a whole is not destined to catch this event. The fact is that as you approach the black hole, the acceleration of free fall will increase. It will also increase its heterogeneity. Near the event horizon, it can reach such a magnitude that it will be able not only to break the ship apart, but also to break molecules into atoms.

The following video shows what the pilot of a space starship will see as it falls into a black hole.

Let's explain the term heterogeneity in this case. Imagine that we are falling feet down into a black hole. Then, for example, an acceleration of 100 meters per square second will act on the legs, and only 50 meters on the head - the sensations will not be very pleasant. On Earth, such heterogeneity also exists, but it is so small that no one feels it. The difference in the accelerations of free fall for the legs and for the head, similarly to the above example, on Earth is less than 1 millionth of a meter per second.

There is a theoretical consideration of various types of black holes, infected and not infected, rotating and not rotating. However, to date, this object remains experimentally almost unexplored. In the course of astronomical observations in the second half of the 20th century, astronomers discovered quite a few objects that, to one degree or another, manifest themselves as black holes. Such objects, for example, are some and the kernels of some

Methods for the formation of black holes

According to modern concepts, there four ways to form a black hole:

• Gravitational collapse a sufficiently massive star at the final stage of its evolution.
• Collapse of the central part of the Galaxy. For example, in the center of our Galaxy there is a black hole Sagittarius A* with a mass of 3.7 solar masses. This method is similar to the previous one, with the only difference that a star is not formed, as is usually the case with gravitational compression of interstellar gas. The mass of gas is so large that the compression goes immediately before the formation of a black hole.
• The formation of black holes at the moment , as a result of fluctuations in the gravitational field or matter.
• The emergence of black holes in nuclear reactions at high energies - quantum black holes.

Black holes are such a complex and mysterious object that scientists will be racking their brains for many more years trying to understand its nature.

The science

What do black holes hide? Can you see them? Can they be the entrance to other dimensions and worlds? And what can happen if you fall into a black hole? Will we ever be able to discover all their secrets?

We can only guess about many things, but there are things that are already known. We invite you to learn more about the mysterious black holes that will blow your mind.

1) Formation of black holes

A black hole is born when a large star begins to run out of fuel and begins to collapse due to its own gravity.

Such a star turns into a white dwarf or neutron star, but if the star is very massive, it can continue to shrink and eventually reach the size of a tiny atom, which is called the center of a black hole.

2) Black hole mass

The mass of this compressed star is so great, and the gravity of its center is so strong that, according to Einstein's theory of general relativity, it can actually warp the space-time around it, and not even light can escape from it.

The boundary beyond which light cannot escape is called event horizon, and the distance from the center to the event horizon is gravitational radius or Schwarzschild radius.

3) Theory of black holes

Once the particles and the sun's rays cross the event horizon, they head towards the center, never to be seen again.

4) The strangest objects in the universe

To an outside observer with a telescope, it seems that an object that passes through the event horizon begins to slow down and freeze and that it did not pass through this boundary at all. Over time, the light becomes redder and dimmer, and its wavelength is longer, eventually disappearing from view, becoming infrared radiation and then radio waves.

5) Fall into a black hole

If a person could be in a black hole, being conscious and able to return from there, he would say that at first he experienced a feeling of weightlessness, as if he was in free fall, but then he would feel very powerful forces of attraction, he would be dragged closer to the center of a black hole.

The closer to the center, the stronger the gravity, therefore, if his legs were closer to the center than his head, he would begin to be greatly stretched and eventually be torn apart.

During the fall, he would see a distorted image, as if the light was enveloping him, and he would also see the light from outside the black hole heading inward.

6) The force of gravity of black holes

It is important to understand that the gravitational field of a black hole is exactly the same as that of other objects in space that have the same mass. In other words, black holes attract objects to themselves in the same way as ordinary stars do, that is, all objects that are near the event horizon fall into them.

7) Wormholes

Wormhole in theory is a tunnel in space-time, which allows you to go a short way from one end of the universe to another. However, these objects can turn out to be very similar to black holes from the outside.

8) Who discovered black holes in the Universe?

John Michell(1783) and Pierre-Simon Laplace(1796) first proposed the concept "dark stars" or objects that, when compressed, have such a strong force of attraction that the escape velocity near them will exceed the speed of light.

Later term "frozen star" has come to be used to describe the last phase of a star's gravitational collapse, when light cannot escape its surface, so the star appears frozen in time to the observer.

In the 20th century the physicist John Wheeler proposed to name these objects "black holes", since they absorbed all the particles of light that were nearby, so they were not able to reflect anything.

Image copyright Thinkstock

Perhaps you think that a person who has fallen into a black hole is waiting for instant death. In reality, his fate may turn out to be much more surprising, the correspondent says.

What will happen to you if you fall inside a black hole? Maybe you think that you will be crushed - or, conversely, torn to shreds? But in reality, everything is much stranger.

The moment you fall into the black hole, reality will split in two. In one reality, you will be instantly incinerated, in the other, you will dive deep into the black hole alive and unharmed.

Inside a black hole, the laws of physics familiar to us do not apply. According to Albert Einstein, gravity bends space. Thus, in the presence of an object of sufficient density, the space-time continuum around it can be deformed so much that a hole is formed in reality itself.

A massive star that has used up all its fuel can turn into exactly the type of superdense matter that is necessary for the emergence of such a curved section of the universe. A star collapsing under its own weight drags along the space-time continuum around it. The gravitational field becomes so strong that even light can no longer escape from it. As a result, the area in which the star was previously located becomes absolutely black - this is the black hole.

Image copyright Thinkstock Image caption No one really knows what's going on inside a black hole.

The outer surface of a black hole is called the event horizon. This is a spherical boundary at which a balance is reached between the strength of the gravitational field and the efforts of light trying to escape the black hole. If you cross the event horizon, it will be impossible to escape.

The event horizon radiates energy. Due to quantum effects, streams of hot particles radiate into the Universe arise on it. This phenomenon is called Hawking radiation - in honor of the British theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking who described it. Despite the fact that matter cannot escape the event horizon, the black hole, nevertheless, "evaporates" - over time, it will finally lose its mass and disappear.

As we move deeper into the black hole, space-time continues to curve and becomes infinitely curved at the center. This point is known as the gravitational singularity. Space and time cease to have any meaning in it, and all the laws of physics known to us, for the description of which these two concepts are necessary, no longer apply.

No one knows what exactly awaits a person who has fallen into the center of a black hole. Another universe? Oblivion? The back wall of a bookcase, like in the American sci-fi movie "Interstellar"? It's a mystery.

Let's reason - using your example - about what happens if you accidentally fall into a black hole. In this experiment, you will be accompanied by an external observer - let's call him Anna. So Anna, at a safe distance, watches in horror as you approach the edge of the black hole. From her point of view, events will develop in a very strange way.

As you get closer to the event horizon, Anna will see you stretch in length and narrow in width, as if she is looking at you through a giant magnifying glass. In addition, the closer you fly to the event horizon, the more Anna will feel that your speed is dropping.

Image copyright Thinkstock Image caption At the center of a black hole, space is infinitely curved.

You won't be able to yell at Anna (since no sound is transmitted in vacuum), but you can try to signal her in Morse code using your iPhone's flashlight. However, your signals will reach it at increasing intervals, and the frequency of the light emitted by the flashlight will shift towards the red (long wavelength) part of the spectrum. Here's how it will look: "Order, in order, in order, in order...".

When you reach the event horizon, from Anna's point of view, you will freeze in place, as if someone paused the playback. You will remain motionless, stretched across the surface of the event horizon, and an ever-increasing heat will begin to take over you.

From Anna's point of view, you will be slowly killed by the stretching of space, the stoppage of time, and the heat of Hawking's radiation. Before you cross the event horizon and deep into the depths of the black hole, you will be left with ashes.

But do not rush to order a memorial service - let's forget about Anna for a while and look at this terrible scene from your point of view. And from your point of view, something even stranger will happen, that is, absolutely nothing special.

You fly straight to one of the most sinister points in the universe without experiencing the slightest shake - not to mention the stretching of space, time dilation or the heat of radiation. This is because you are in free fall and therefore do not feel your own weight - this is what Einstein called the "best idea" of his life.

Indeed, the event horizon is not a brick wall in space, but a phenomenon conditioned by the point of view of the observer. An observer who remains outside the black hole cannot see inside through the event horizon, but that is his problem, not yours. From your point of view, there is no horizon.

If the dimensions of our black hole were smaller, you would really run into a problem - gravity would act on your body unevenly, and you would be pulled into pasta. But luckily for you, this black hole is large - millions of times more massive than the Sun, so the gravitational force is weak enough to be negligible.

Image copyright Thinkstock Image caption You can't go back and get out of a black hole, just like none of us can travel back in time.

Inside a sufficiently large black hole, you can even live the rest of your life quite normally until you die in a gravitational singularity.

You may ask, how normal can a person's life be, against their will, being pulled into a hole in the space-time continuum with no chance of ever getting out?

But if you think about it, we all know this feeling - only in relation to time, and not to space. Time only goes forward and never back, and it really drags us along against our will, leaving us no chance to return to the past.

This is not just an analogy. Black holes bend the space-time continuum to such an extent that inside the event horizon, time and space are reversed. In a sense, it's not space that pulls you to the singularity, but time. You can't go back and get out of a black hole, just like none of us can travel into the past.

Perhaps now you are wondering what is wrong with Anna. You fly into the empty space of a black hole and you are all right, and she mourns your death, claiming that you were incinerated by Hawking radiation from the outside of the event horizon. Is she hallucinating?

In fact, Anna's statement is absolutely correct. From her point of view, you are indeed fried on the event horizon. And it's not an illusion. Anna can even collect your ashes and send them to your family.

Image copyright Thinkstock Image caption The event horizon is not a brick wall, it is permeable

The fact is that, according to the laws of quantum physics, from Anna's point of view, you cannot cross the event horizon and must remain on the outside of the black hole, since information is never irretrievably lost. Every bit of information that is responsible for your existence must remain on the outer surface of the event horizon - otherwise, from the point of view of Anna, the laws of physics will be violated.

On the other hand, the laws of physics also require that you fly through the event horizon alive and unharmed, without encountering hot particles or any other unusual phenomena on your way. Otherwise, the general theory of relativity will be violated.

So the laws of physics want you to be both outside the black hole (as a pile of ash) and inside it (safe and sound) at the same time. And one more important point: according to the general principles of quantum mechanics, information cannot be cloned. You need to be in two places at the same time, but only in one instance.

Physicists call such a paradoxical phenomenon the term "disappearance of information in a black hole". Fortunately, in the 1990s scientists managed to resolve this paradox.

American physicist Leonard Susskind realized that there really is no paradox, since no one will see your cloning. Anna will watch one of your specimens, and you will watch the other. You and Anna will never meet again and you will not be able to compare observations. And there is no third observer who could watch you from both outside and inside the black hole at the same time. Thus, the laws of physics are not violated.

Unless you want to know which of your instances is real and which is not. Are you really alive or dead?

Image copyright Thinkstock Image caption Will the person fly through the event horizon unharmed, or crash into a wall of fire?

The thing is, there is no "reality". Reality depends on the observer. There is "really" from Anna's point of view and "really" from your point of view. That's all.

Almost all. In the summer of 2012, physicists Ahmed Almheiri, Donald Marolph, Joe Polchinski, and James Sully, collectively known by their last names as AMPS, proposed a thought experiment that threatened to upend our understanding of black holes.

According to scientists, the resolution of the contradiction proposed by Süsskind is based on the fact that the disagreement in the assessment of what is happening between you and Anna is mediated by the event horizon. It doesn't matter if Anna actually saw one of your two specimens die in the fire of Hawking radiation, because the event horizon prevented her from seeing your second specimen flying deep into the black hole.

But what if Anna had a way to find out what was happening on the other side of the event horizon without crossing it?

General relativity tells us that this is impossible, but quantum mechanics blurs the hard rules a little. Anna could have peered beyond the event horizon with what Einstein called "spooky long-range action."

We are talking about quantum entanglement - a phenomenon in which the quantum states of two or more particles separated by space, mysteriously become interdependent. These particles now form a single and indivisible whole, and the information necessary to describe this whole is contained not in this or that particle, but in the relationship between them.

The idea put forward by AMPS is as follows. Suppose Anna picks up a particle near the event horizon - let's call it particle A.

If her version of what happened to you is true, that is, you were killed by Hawking radiation on the outside of the black hole, then particle A must be interconnected with another particle, B, which must also be on the outside of the event horizon.

Image copyright Thinkstock Image caption Black holes can attract matter from nearby stars

If your vision of events corresponds to reality, and you are alive and well on the inside, then particle A must be interconnected with particle C, located somewhere inside the black hole.

The beauty of this theory is that each of the particles can only be interconnected with one other particle. This means that particle A is connected either to particle B or to particle C, but not to both at the same time.

So Anna takes her particle A and runs it through the entanglement decoding machine she has, which gives the answer whether this particle is associated with particle B or with particle C.

If the answer is C, your point of view has prevailed in violation of the laws of quantum mechanics. If particle A is connected to particle C, which is in the depths of a black hole, then the information describing their interdependence is forever lost to Anna, which contradicts the quantum law, according to which information is never lost.

If the answer is B, then, contrary to the principles of general relativity, Anna is right. If particle A is bound to particle B, you've really been incinerated by Hawking radiation. Instead of flying through the event horizon, as relativity requires, you crashed into a wall of fire.

So we're back to the question we started with - what happens to a person who gets inside a black hole? Will it fly through the event horizon unharmed thanks to a reality that is surprisingly dependent on the observer, or will it crash into a wall of fire ( blackholesfirewall, not to be confused with the computer termfirewall, "firewall", software that protects your computer on a network from unauthorized intrusion - Ed.)?

Nobody knows the answer to this question, one of the most controversial issues in theoretical physics.

For over 100 years, scientists have been trying to reconcile the principles of general relativity and quantum physics, in the hope that in the end one or the other will prevail. The resolution of the "wall of fire" paradox should answer the question of which of the principles prevailed and help physicists to create a comprehensive theory.

Image copyright Thinkstock Image caption Or maybe next time send Anna into a black hole?

The solution to the paradox of the disappearance of information may lie in Anna's deciphering machine. It is extremely difficult to determine with which other particle particle A is interconnected. Physicists Daniel Harlow of Princeton University in New Jersey and Patrick Hayden, now at Stanford University in California in California, wondered how long it would take.

In 2013, they calculated that even with the fastest computer possible according to the laws of physics, it would take Anna an extremely long time to decipher the relationship between particles - so long that by the time she gets the answer , the black hole will evaporate a long time ago.

If so, it is likely that Anna is simply not destined to ever know whose point of view is true. In this case, both stories will remain true at the same time, reality will depend on the observer, and none of the laws of physics will be violated.

In addition, the connection between highly complex calculations (which our observer, apparently, is not capable of) and the space-time continuum may prompt physicists to some new theoretical reflections.

Thus, black holes are not just dangerous objects on the way of interstellar expeditions, but also theoretical laboratories in which the slightest variations in physical laws grow to such a size that they can no longer be neglected.

If the true nature of reality lies somewhere, the best place to look for it is in black holes. But while we do not have a clear understanding of how safe the event horizon is for humans, it is safer to watch searches from the outside. In extreme cases, you can send Anna into the black hole next time - now it's her turn.

Artist's interpretation of how a star crosses the event horizon of a central supermassive black hole

A black hole is characterized by incredibly strong gravity, not even emitting light. The event horizon is concentrated around it. It is enough to cross this "line" and you are doomed. Everyone knows about this, but the existence of such “lines” has not been proven.

So the scientists decided to conduct an experiment. It is believed that supermassive black holes reside in the centers of all large galaxies. But there is an opinion that there is also another object. This is an unusual supermassive something that managed to dodge collapse and singularity. It also has an event horizon around it.

If the singularity has no surface area, then the object has a solid one. Therefore, the star will not fall into the black hole, but will break on the surface.

It is a huge massive sphere at the galactic center. We see a star crash into a solid surface and scatter debris

To reveal the authenticity of the theory, scientists have come up with a new test. The point is to define what a solid surface is. It would help to solve the problem with the event horizon.

To begin with, they found that when an object hits a solid surface, the stellar gas will envelop it and shine for several months or years. The telescope should pick it up. When the scientists realized what needed to be found, they confirmed their arguments.

They estimated the speed at which stars fall into black holes. For this, only the most massive ones were considered, whose mass exceeded the solar mass by 100 million times. It turned out that there are about a million such objects at a distance of several billion years from us.

Then I had to look through the archival data of the 1.8-meter Pan-STARRS telescope, which had been exploring the northern hemisphere for 3.5 years for a "temporary glow". If the assumption is correct, then taking into account all the data, the telescope should have identified 9-10 such events.

And... he didn't find anything.

It turns out that all black holes must have an event horizon. So Einstein was right again. Now the team is trying to improve the test and test it on the 8.4-meter Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, which is more sensitive.

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The information paradox of black holes has puzzled scientists for decades. This mystery has sparked countless debates about what actually happens once you fall into a black hole. To make this paradox easier to understand, let's look at the example of a hypothetical Lucy. You fly yourself with Lucy into a black hole, and at the last second she decides not to get there. They decided to stay on the sidelines and watch what happens to you next. Lucy sees that as you approach the black hole, your body begins to slowly stretch, and eventually splits into atoms. She thinks that you are dead, and thanks fate for not listening to you and not following you.

But wait. After all, this is not how the story ends. In fact, you remain alive and continue to sink deeper and deeper into the infinity of the black hole. What happens to you next is not the point of our question. The most interesting thing is that you will survive even though Lucy saw you die.

How is this possible? This is an example of the black hole information paradox. It's not an illusion, and Lucy hasn't lost her mind. This is what is really possible. At least in theory. A black hole is a place where the laws of physics known to us do not apply. According to one of the assumptions, when you enter the black hole, reality for you and Lucy will be divided into two parts.

spaghettification

According to another hypothesis, as soon as you cross the boundary of the event horizon of a black hole, you will begin to experience a powerful stretch under the influence of gravity. When falling into the center of a black hole, forces will act on your body, which will eventually tear you into small pieces (rather, even particles).

Moreover, if you fall into a black hole with your head first, it will be so far away from your body that you will start to look like spaghetti. The bottom line is the difference in acceleration when falling due to gravity, which will affect your head and legs. This difference is so big that you will stretch out like spaghetti or noodles. Because of this, the term spaghettification even appeared.

Distortion of light, space and time

The first thing anyone notices before they hit the event horizon of a black hole is how different light, space, and time become. As soon as you get inside, the known laws of physics will cease to exist for you, and completely different forces will come into force.

The infinite level of gravity produced by the singularity at the center of a black hole can warp space, reverse time, and change light beyond recognition. Because of this, your perception of what is happening now will be completely different from what was happening before you entered the event horizon. Of course, this will last exactly until the moment when you are completely absorbed by the endless darkness and will no longer be able to perceive anything at all.

Time travel

The greatest physicists, such as Einstein and Hawking, theorized at one time that travel to the future would be possible by exploiting the internal laws of black holes. As mentioned earlier, the usual laws of physics inside a black hole cease to operate, and completely different ones take on the main role. One of the things that makes black holes different from our world is how time passes in them.

The gravity inside a black hole is so powerful that it can bend not only space, but also time. Given this, it can be assumed that the warp of time opens up the possibility of travel in it. If we can learn to exploit such a striking difference between the space inside and outside the event horizon, then, quite possibly, due to gravitational time dilation, we can travel to the future, where you will still remain young, while your friends will already grow old.

Of course, we should not forget that we have not yet come up with not only a way to travel through black holes, we do not even know how to get to them and, more importantly, survive all this.

Nothing will happen to you

If one day we have the choice of which black hole to travel through, then most likely we should choose some supermassive black hole or a Kerr black hole.

If we can ever get to the black hole at the center of our galaxy, which is about 25,000 light-years away and about 4.3 million times more massive than our Sun, then we might be able to do so in a completely safe way for our health. pass through it. The concept of this idea is that the gravitational forces of the hole, affecting whoever wants to fall into it, will be quite insignificant due to the fact that the event horizon is located much further from the center of the black hole. In this way, you can stay alive inside the event horizon and die only from starvation and dehydration, and possibly from the fact that you finally fall into the singularity. Here you can bet on what will happen first, because there is no more accurate answer yet.

Moreover, it is theoretically possible to stay alive and live the rest of your life inside a Kerr black hole, which is a completely unique type of black hole, the theory of which was first proposed in 1963 by the New Zealand mathematician and astrophysicist Roy Kerr. Then he suggested that if black holes are formed from dying binary neutron stars, then it will be possible to get inside such a black hole completely unharmed, since the centrifugal force will prevent the emergence of a singularity at its center. The absence of a singularity at the center of a black hole would, in turn, mean that you would not have to fear infinite gravitational forces and could survive.

According to Einstein, until the very end you will not understand what is happening

Einstein suggested that if you achieve a certain level of free fall, then you can cancel the effect (or even rather the perception) of gravitational forces. This means that if a person in free fall ceases to feel his own weight, any thing that is thrown into a black hole with him will not appear to fall. Rather, it will seem that she will soar.

Einstein developed this idea and derived from it the world-famous general theory of relativity, perhaps his most successful idea. And perhaps this will be the happiest thought for you if you fall into a black hole. Even if you fall into God knows what, you will still not be able to understand that you are falling until you fall into a singularity. However, if at this moment someone can watch you from the side, then they will definitely see that you are falling. All of this has to do with perception. Whatever surrounds you will fall relative to you (and as a result you will not be able to understand that you are falling), while for all those who will follow you, this will not be the case.

white hole

It is known that black holes eventually absorb absolutely everything that falls into their event horizon. Even light cannot escape a tragic fate. What is less known is what happens to all these doomed particles further. According to one theory, everything that enters a black hole from one end gets out from the other end. And this second end is the so-called white hole.

Of course, no one has yet seen any white holes (and black ones, too, frankly. We know about their existence only thanks to their powerful gravitational influence), so no one can say with certainty whether they are actually white. However, the reason they are called that is because white holes are the exact opposite of what black holes are. Instead of absorbing everything around them, they, on the contrary, spit out everything that is inside them. And as in the case of a black hole, from which you can’t escape if you get into its event horizon, so it’s the same with a white hole. Just the other way around: you won't be able to get into it.

In short: a white hole spits out everything that was consumed by a black hole into an alternate universe. This theory has, to some extent, led physicists to consider the possibility that white holes are the basis for the creation of our universe as we know it. And if you ever fall into a black hole and somehow survive and can exit from the other side through a white hole in an alternative universe, then you will never be able to return back to our universe.

You will follow the history of the development of the Universe

As mentioned earlier, there is a possibility of black holes without a singularity at their center. Instead, there will be a so-called wormhole in the center. If we find a way to travel through the wormhole, we will most likely witness a history of the evolution of the universe that can be observed all the way to whatever lies at the other end of the wormhole. It will look like someone playing a video of the history of the universe in infinite fast-forward.

Unfortunately, this story will still have a bad ending. The faster the picture moves, the faster you will get closer to your death. The light will become more and more blueshifted and charged until you are completely roasted alive by its radiation.

Journey to a parallel universe

If one day you fall into a black hole, whether consciously or accidentally, the first thing to do is to try to look around. Maybe you can find a way out this way, who knows. Even if it turns out that it will not work to return to the Universe where you came from, then ending up in a parallel Universe may not be such a bad end to your journey.

Physicists theorize that once you reach the singularity of a black hole, it can serve as a kind of bridge for you between this and an alternate reality, or the so-called "parallel universe." What happens in this new universe remains a mystery and a field for our imagination. Some theories even suggest that there are an infinite number of alternate universes, each containing an equal number of completely different "yous".

Have you ever thought about the choices you have made in your life? What would happen if you didn’t get this job, but that job, met that girl or guy, instead of sitting at the computer every day? Would you have become richer or poorer if you had not done or done what you were once asked to do? So, in an alternative universe, you will have a chance to find out.

You will become part of the universe

Hawking once suggested that certain particles entering a black hole undergo a sort of filtering process into positively charged and negatively charged ones. These particles are very slowly absorbed by the black hole. With immersion in it, negatively charged particles lose their mass. Positively charged particles have enough energy to stay outside the black hole as radiation.

According to Hawking, black holes are slowly but surely losing their mass and getting hotter. They eventually explode and scatter their contents, called Hawking radiation, back into the universe. This, at least in theory, means that you can become part of the universe, like a Phoenix reborn from atomic ashes.

Bonus: You will just… die

Sometimes we are very fond of ignoring the most obvious and terrible consequences of an event, being blinded by the likelihood of more joyful coincidences.

As sadistic as it sounds, the most likely outcome of your fall into a black hole is that even before you can even understand your presence inside it, not even dust will remain of you. You won't even have time to realize that you have witnessed what physicists talk about as the key to understanding the mysteries of the universe.