Black Holes: How Are They Formed?

Submitted By smileyreilly17
Words: 546
Pages: 3

Black Holes: How are they formed?
Black holes have been studied and researched for quite a long time. It has been proven that black holes contain such incredibly dense and compact matter, that its gravitational force is strong enough to prevent anything and everything, including light, from escaping. Although they do not emit any detectable light, scientists are able to measure the X-rays , visible light, and radio waves emitted by the material objects orbiting around it. By doing this, you can discover information such as the gravitational force and mass of a black hole.
Black holes are born when an object contains enough gravitational force to overpower the nuclear fusions within. These fusions typically occur within stars up to 10x greater than our own. Inside a star, the nuclear fusion takes place within its core, fusing two hydrogen atoms to create helium atoms in order to release energy. This process takes up most of the star’s life, however, once a critical amount of hydrogen is fused into helium, the hydrogen levels decrease and the star must then rely on different elements to release energy. During its final stages of life, the star begins to convert helium into carbon. After this takes place, it must turn the carbon into oxygen. The oxygen then fuses into silicon, and finally to iron. Once this takes place, the nuclear fusion slows down and the outer layers of the elements generated, keep burning. Throughout this process the sun’s core gradually contracts. If the neutrons are not able to prevent the star from imploding due to the gravitational force within, this results in the star being unable to withstand the force of its own gravity. The radius of the star shrinks and compresses into critical size, called the “Schwarzschild radius.” At this point, the star consumes anything that crosses its pass, including light. The outer shells of the star explode into space, and may fall into the already dense black hole that has been forming. This type of black hole is called a “Stellar mass black hole.”
The ultimate outcome for stars depends on their mass. If a star possesses mass similar to the Sun, it will most likely turn into a white