h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Actually, in theory (seeing as how no one has managed to dive into a black hole.. much less come back out) the center of a black hole would be a singularity. A singularity has infinite mass and no volume, meaning that it would be a single dimensional point in space.

Also, if you were to jump into a black hole (and manage not to be ripped to pieces by the gravitational forces) your image would be imprinted forever on the even horizon of the black hole. The event horizon being the plane around the singularity at which the escape velocity is the speed of light (being the speed of light means that you must be traveling FASTER than the speed of light), however, the image's level of light would decrease exponentialy, but would remain as long as the black hole remained. There are a couple of other things I remember reading about black holes... but I can't think of them right now.

one thing i would like to point out is that a singularity is not necessarily a point in space with zero dimensions and infinite mass--though this definitely constitutes a singularity. There are a lot of other singularities possible. Even your common divide by zero is an instance of singularity.In physical terms any occurence which violates the basic tenets can form a singularity.
Further on the subject of black holes....Suppose you are looking at a tree. The light should get reflected from the tree and reach your eyes only then u can see it. But suppose the light never reaches your eyes?This is what happens in a blackhole. When the theoretical astronomer gets sucked in, the light from his legs (assuming he is going leg first)takes a longer time to reach you than the light from his head. At one point , the light never leaves the blackhole, so you can never see a person completely sucked into the blackhole. The light reflected off his body when falls into the blackhole cannot escape from the event horizon and is permanently frozen. What happens to it once the blackhole dies is an open question.
Another interesting piece of info about black holes I remember researching on was the concept of space time dilation in a black hole and the black hole opening up a passage to another universe(Stephen Hawkings concept of infinite universes).

One thought: If you were really close to the event horizon, would the photons bouncing off of you be slowed down to some really slow speed? Since this is outside of the event horizon, they could escape, but I think they might be signifigently slowed down. If this were true, the "imprinting" effect would take place; the photos from when you first entered the black hole would hang around awhile, so people could still see you, even though you had already disappeared.

Also, some people think that black holes might be the entry points to wormholes, or possibly potential time travel devices. It's kinda interesting.

PhysicsMan

What is event horizon?

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