# What Occurs When You Fall Into a Black Hole? Unraveling the Mysteries of Gravity
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Chapter 1: The Nature of Curiosity
If you could pose one question about the Universe, what would it be? As we mature, the wonders we had as children often fade away, making it a delight to receive a message from Eric Erb regarding ten questions his son, Tristan, brought home from 2nd grade. Among these, the two most captivating concepts were gravity and time. After some discussion, Tristan’s questions emerged:
- What occurs when you fall into a black hole?
- How does gravity exert its pull on us?
Let’s delve into these mysteries.
Section 1.1: Understanding Gravity
Normal matter is halted by Earth's surface, yet dark matter would glide through, tracing a near-perfect elliptical path. This phenomenon illustrates what any system would undergo if gravitational forces were the only influences at play (DAVE GOLDBERG OF ASK A MATHEMATICIAN/ASK A PHYSICIST).
To grasp the concept of gravity, one must first recognize that, as long as you’re in this Universe and not in contact with anything else, you are, in a sense, free. This freedom is akin to an astronaut floating in space: there’s no ground pushing you upwards, no air resistance, no objects in contact with you. You are truly unencumbered in the vastness of the Universe.
However, this freedom also implies that you are subject to gravitational forces. Although you might not perceive it, gravity is an ever-present force. The sensation you feel on Earth’s surface isn’t gravity itself; it’s gravity counteracted by the support of the ground, a chair, or any other surface. When you leap off the ground, the brief moment of weightlessness you experience is akin to being in free-fall — where only gravity influences you.
In reality, masses are scattered throughout the Universe. The Earth, the Sun, and numerous stars and galaxies all possess mass. Visualizing space, it wouldn’t appear as a flat grid but rather as a warped fabric shaped by these masses. As you navigate through the Universe solely under gravity’s influence, the curvature of this grid dictates your trajectory.
In General Relativity, we conceptualize space and time as intertwined; all forms of energy, including mass, contribute to the curvature of spacetime (CHRISTOPHER VITALE OF NETWORKOLOGIES AND THE PRATT INSTITUTE). Gravity represents the distortion of space caused by mass and energy, impacting other objects situated within that space.
Section 1.2: The Dynamics of Space
Don't be misled by static visuals; the fabric of space is in constant flux as masses shift within it. The dynamic movements of planets, stars, and galaxies continuously reshape the warping of space.
An animated representation of how spacetime adjusts as a mass traverses it vividly illustrates that it’s not merely a fabric, but the entirety of space that gets curved by the characteristics of matter and energy in the Universe (LUCASVB).
If you possess the right speed and trajectory, you could achieve a stable orbit around any mass. However, a miscalculation could lead you to fall back towards that mass. For instance, launching a rocket without adequate speed would result in its return to Earth. Similarly, if a planet decelerates too much, it may spiral into the Sun, and an orbiting star could plunge into a galaxy's center.
In the most extreme scenarios, if the conditions are unfavorable, one could fall into a black hole. A black hole is an extraordinary mass, so dense and compact that nothing can escape its grasp — not even light, which travels at the Universe's ultimate speed.
Chapter 2: The Black Hole Experience
As you approach a black hole's event horizon, numerous perplexing phenomena manifest, intensifying once you cross that threshold. The gravitational pull of a black hole is indistinguishable from other masses when observed from a distance. The curvature of spacetime becomes more pronounced as you draw nearer.
Upon nearing the event horizon, you’d experience a strange force acting on your body. If your feet are closer to the black hole than your head, you’d feel an intense stretching effect from head to toe while your sides compress. These tidal forces, similar to those that cause oceanic bulges, are vastly more powerful near a black hole.
This stretching phenomenon is known as spaghettification. Even if you begin as a perfect sphere, approaching a black hole would elongate you in its direction and compress you perpendicularly. The net forces experienced differ across various points of your body, leading to this dramatic effect (KRISHNAVEDALA / WIKIMEDIA COMMONS).
As you draw near, the surrounding space appears increasingly distorted, resembling a cosmic lens that warps the light around it. The visual experience becomes surreal; as you close in, the angular size of the black hole seems to expand disproportionately compared to your distance.
This is due to the extreme curvature of space around a black hole, which also influences how light behaves. The event horizon starts to dominate your field of view, becoming immense compared to its actual size. Observers outside would witness your information encoded on the event horizon as you fall in, yet the fate of that information remains an enigma (ANDREW HAMILTON / JILA / UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO).
Once you cross the event horizon, your fate is sealed; there is no escape. But before that point, it’s still possible to escape if you can generate sufficient acceleration away from it. The gravitational sensors in your vicinity would indicate a downward slope towards the black hole’s core, while starlight fades into a pinprick behind you, transitioning in color due to gravitational blueshifting.
As you approach the event horizon, you might witness a remarkable sight of the Cosmic Microwave Background, shifting colors as you enter the black hole’s influence (E. SIEGEL).
And then… darkness. Once inside the event horizon, no light from the outside reaches you. Regardless of your efforts to escape, you would find yourself inexorably drawn towards the singularity, which would crush you into subatomic particles within moments.
However, there’s a tantalizing possibility that some black holes may lead to other realms — a white hole, a different Universe, or an undiscovered physical reality hidden beyond the event horizon. Yet, from our vantage point, we can glean no information about what lies within. Our understanding remains speculative.
While I advise against attempting to enter a black hole, should one dare to venture inside, they would possess unique knowledge of its mysteries, perhaps becoming the first to uncover what lies within. In the quest for knowledge, risking the unknown is often necessary. Perhaps one of you, reading this, will be the one to discover the truth.
Feel free to send your questions to Ask Ethan at startswithabang at gmail dot com!
Starts With A Bang is featured on Forbes and republished on Medium, thanks to our generous Patreon supporters. Ethan is the author of two books: Beyond The Galaxy and Treknology: The Science of Star Trek from Tricorders to Warp Drive.