black hole
blak HOHL
/blæk hoʊl/
A region of spacetime where gravity is so strong that nothing, not even light or other electromagnetic waves, can escape from it.
While 'hole' implies emptiness, a black hole is actually an extremely dense concentration of matter. It's 'black' because light cannot escape, making it invisible.
The story behind the word. The term 'black hole' was coined by American physicist John Wheeler in 1967. Although the concept of an object so dense that light couldn't escape had been theorized much earlier (by John Michell in 1783 and Pierre-Simon Laplace in 1796), Wheeler's vivid and descriptive name quickly caught on, perfectly capturing the mysterious and inescapable nature of these cosmic phenomena.
Collocations
- supermassive black hole
- stellar-mass black hole
- miniature black hole
- event horizon
- accretion disk
Idioms & expressions
- a black hole for money/time (informal, something that consumes a lot of resources)
Example sentences
- "At the center of most galaxies lies a supermassive black hole, millions or even billions of times the mass of our Sun." Scientific explanation.
- "The Event Horizon Telescope captured the first image of a black hole, revealing its shadow against the glowing gas around it." Describing a cosmic phenomenon.
Memory hook
It's a BLACK region in space, like a HOLE from which nothing can escape. BLACK HOLE = inescapable gravity.
When not to use
Do not use 'black hole' as a casual metaphor for any difficult or inescapable situation, as it can trivialize the scientific concept.
Fun facts
- The closest known black hole to Earth is Gaia BH1, about 1,560 light-years away.
- If our Sun were to become a black hole, Earth would continue to orbit it at the same distance, as its gravitational pull would remain the same.
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