Black holes do not just bend the stage, they are like trap doors. Places with so much mass that the universe formed a 'no-go' zone where the rules change.

• Most black holes form when very massive stars die. In the final moments of really massive stars, there inside...

A black hole the mass of our sun has a lifetime of 10^67 years. Which means that it would take:

• 10,000 billion, billion, billion, billion, billion, billion years, to lose 0.0000001% of its mass.
• But most black holes are way more massive than our s...

We can still observe black holes because of ther effect on matter. Things can orbit black holes just as they can orbit the sun or a planet.

• Many black holes have discs of matter orbiting outside the event horizon.
• This matter can become incredibly...

So what will happen with black holes as the universe ages and dies around them?

• Again, we don't know but we have some ideas based on our current understanding of physics: Hawking radiation.
• In quantum field theory the vacu...

In the center of the black hole, we find the singularity. A single point with all the matter that has ever crossed the event horizon, all crushed to a point infinitely small.

• There is no memory of the things that made it as stuff disapears down the black hole tra...

If you got to the center of a galaxy and find a massive black hole, you might be able to experience crossing the event horizon.

• As you approach the event horizon, a distant observer would think they never saw you enter it, seeing you stop and fade.

If you look directly at a black hole it looks like nothing. the space is under their control is blocked by an invisible one way border called the event horizon.

The event horizon forms a sheel around a region of space that, once entered, is shielded from the rest o...

But getting close to a black hole can be incredibly dangerous. A painful death by 'spaghettification' awaits you.

Because you feet are closer to the black hole than your head they feel a stronger pull of gravity, enough to pull you apart.

• A...

When this happens near the event horizon of a black hole, one of these particles call fall in, stopping them from annihilating.

• The escaping particle is hawking radiation. ultimately the mass of this particle must come from the black hole, so over eons black holes...

Gravity also alters the passage of time itself. The stronger the gravity the slower time passes. While you watch the universe above you speed up, those far away will watch you in slow motion.

• If you chose to fly away from the black hole, you might find that eons ha...

The singularities of rotating black holes are even wilder. The rotation causes them to swell outwards into a sort of rinularity.

This rotation is so powerfull, that space itself is dragged along.

• This creates another region around spinning b...

No one knows. We can only see their outsides, and the theories we have probably get their insides wrong.

But it's okay not to now everything. It just means there is still work to be done. It means there are still mysteries to be solved and big dead to t...

Just like fundamental particles, the properties of singularrities are the best ways we can describe them on paper, rather than an accurate representation of reality. 

Our current theories about the universe, namely general relativity are just not able to descrive or explain them.

First of all, you would see the strangest funhouse mirror in the universe. Matter isn't the only thing orbiting a black hole: Gravity is so strong near them that light can orbit too. 

• If you hovered just outside the event horizon, at the photon sphere, in any direc...

This lack of memory of its past, means that a black hole has only three properties its:

• Mass
• Spin
• Electric charge

Everything else is lost. They're a lot like fundamental particles in that respect. This actually means that every singl...