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Asked by ogoldfinch09 to Asif, Laura, Lena, Sean, Viv on 19 Mar 2012.
Question: What, precisely, is the relationship between light and black holes?
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Sean Murphy answered on 19 Mar 2012:
Black holes are so dense that light cannot escape it’s gravitational pull. This means that any light close by is attracted to the black hole, so is not able to leave and be viewed by anyone. This is what makes a black hole “black”.
NASA describes this in more detail: http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/science/know_l2/black_holes.html
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Viv Lyons answered on 19 Mar 2012:
It is also worth noting that if light cannot escape from a black whole then matter stands no chance. Which is what makes it so dense and have a gravitational pull so huge that light can’t escape.
Comments
ogoldfinch09 commented on :
If the gravity of black holes causes them to “absorb” light then wouldn’t the gravity of planets at least bend light? I heard that there was some kind of recent discovery to do with light having no mass meaning that they were not affected by gravity at all. Can we be sure that black holes are not just black as other objects are such as black clothes and plastic?
piman commented on :
Planets do not have nearly enough gravitational pull to bend light.
ogoldfinch09 commented on :
What are you basing that on?
ogoldfinch09 commented on :
My source tells me that light is not bent to go towards a black hole but that the black hole actually bends space towards itself so that even though the light appears to change course and go in another direction it is actually still traveling in a straight line, it is just traveling through warped space.