A BLACK hole is one of science's biggest mysteries, a point in space from which even light cannot escape.
Having said that, is it true that black holes are holes in the fabric of space and time that are black?
VERDICT:
FALSE
Despite the name, a black hole is neither a hole nor black - and this is explained in a YouTube video by Oxford University astrophysicist Dr Rebecca Smethurst.
In the video, the author of "A Brief History of Black Holes" explained that these celestial objects are basically dead stars that have collapsed to a point where they have a gravitational pull so strong that nothing can escape it.
Smethurst said that as such, black holes are invisible and can only be detected by the effect it has on the matter around it.
"If there's one thing that I could change in the entirety of physics, it would be the name for black holes. No two words have ever caused more misunderstandings and misconceptions than 'black holes' because they're not even 'holes' at all!" she said.
Smethurst added that "if anything, it's the complete opposite. It's a mountain of matter crushed into such a small space so dense that the escape velocity is greater than the speed of light."
She suggested that the name "Dark Star" would be a better name for black holes, adding that the "better description" of a name was first used back in 1783 by the first person to ever consider the idea of a black hole -- John Michell.
"After all, a dying star that collapses in on itself in a supernova is the only process that we know that can make a black hole. They become these prisons for light; dark stars," she said.
On the science-fiction side, a black hole is often depicted as a "wormhole" that connects different parts of the universe and in some cases, even time and space.
While it may sound far-fetched, the theory behind it might not be entirely fictional after all.
In 1935, Albert Einstein and Nathan Rosen proposed "wormholes" through space-time, which could provide a means of traversing large distances instantaneously and as such, such an object is also known as an Einstein-Rosen bridge.
So yes, sometimes a name can be misleading. And with that said, black holes aren't something we should worry too much about, there's those potholes on the road!
Sources:
https://www.sciencefocus.com/
https://youtu.be/Bugbh3jybvc
https://www.popularmechanics.
