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BLACK HOLES: GENIUS HOUR

PROJECT Maeve McFadden

Q: What is a black hole?

A: A black hole is compressed matter with a mass and gravitational pull so

strong that even light cannot escape. They are invisible to the naked eyes, because no light can reflect off of it, so what is inside a black hole is a

MYSTERY

Q: How is a black hole created?

A: If a star has enough mass, then and then only could it possibly create a black hole. A star feeds on hydrogen to survive, simultaneously creating helium inside itself. Once the hydrogen gives out, the star switches to helium. Once that gives out, stars without enough mass, like our Sun, cannot continue the process, they cool down and become a white dwarf. Stars 5 times the mass of our Sun continue down the periodic table, thriving, until finally they reach iron. There they have a problem- you can’t get any energy from fusing together iron particles, and in a fraction of a second the star compresses into a black hole where even light cannot escape. You can also get black holes when two dense objects collide. There are supermassive black holes in the center of every galaxy, but it is yet a mystery how they form.

Q: What are the different types of a black hole?

A: There are three different types of black holes: primordial, stellar, and supermassive. Primordial are theorized to have formed soon after the Big Bang. Stellar happens when the star creates a supernova and compresses itself, as explained above. Supermassive black holes were supposedly formed as the same time as the galaxy it is in- size is related to the size and mass of the galaxy it’s in. There is a supermassive black hole in every large galaxy; it swallows up the smaller ones. The formation of the supermassive black hole is unknown.

Q: What’s inside of a black hole?

Good question! Get back to me when you find out!

CTHE END Thank you for watching my presentation and hopefully you learned a thing or two! Have a fabulous

day!