What If You Fell Into a Black Hole?

How much do you know about black holes? What would happen if you fell into one? Let's imagine one day you were out in space, searching for a new planet for humanity to inhabit. However, you stumbled upon a black hole and thought, "Why not check it out?" Would you have any chance of survival, or is there a shortcut to another universe? In this "what if" scenario, we'll explore what would happen if you fell into a black hole.

Despite their name, black holes are not dark empty spaces. In Einstein's theory of relativity, he predicted how black holes are formed. When a massive star dies, it leaves behind a smaller remnant core. If this core's mass is at least three times greater than that of our Sun, gravity overwhelms all other forces and compresses the core into a black hole. However, don't be deceived by the name—black holes aren't holes at all. Instead, they are vast amounts of matter crammed into an incredibly small space.

Think of the Sun, which has a gravitational field 28 times stronger than Earth's. If you were to stand on the Sun, you'd weigh 28 times more than you do on Earth. Now, imagine compressing four Suns into a space just 15 miles in diameter—a distance you could cover in a 30-minute drive. The gravity in such a space would be unimaginably strong.

A black hole's gravity is so intense that even light cannot escape it. This is why we can't directly see black holes, but we can detect them through phenomena like gamma-ray bursts, which are emitted by the hole. These bursts were discovered by Stephen Hawking, and they now bear his name as Hawking radiation. Interestingly, Stephen Hawking himself believed that black holes could potentially serve as passages to other universes.

Every black hole has an event horizon, a point at which gravity becomes so overwhelming that nothing can escape it—a point of no return. If you found yourself outside of this point, you'd observe stars twisted around a perfect circle of darkness. As you get closer to a black hole, you'd accelerate rapidly due to the gravitational force. However, this is where things take a turn for the worse.

The gravitational force of a black hole is incredibly powerful. If you were to fall into one feet first, your legs would experience a stronger gravitational pull than your head, causing your body to stretch apart. Most black holes, known as stellar black holes, can be about 9 miles across and as heavy as 20 Suns. Falling towards a stellar black hole would result in your body being torn apart before even reaching the event horizon.

To increase your chances of survival, you'd need to encounter a supermassive black hole—one a million times heavier than our Sun. In this scenario, your body would remain intact as you crossed the event horizon, as the gravitational forces on your feet and head would be nearly equal.

However, before you start planning your adventure, you should know that there's a catch. A black hole has a gravitational singularity at its center, where density becomes infinite. You'd be compressed into that singularity and become a part of the black hole, unable to communicate your experience to anyone.

From an outside observer's perspective, as you fell into a black hole, you'd appear to slow down, grow dimmer, and redden. Eventually, you'd freeze in place, never crossing the event horizon. This apparent contradiction arises because space and time swap roles at the event horizon—time comes to a standstill, while space moves forward. You'd be unable to turn around and escape the black hole any more than you could travel back in time.

Even if the black hole eventually emitted all the particles it had absorbed, including your body, it would be impossible to determine whether those particles were once you. Stephen Hawking proposed an intriguing theory to preserve information about your body: there are alternative universes with different histories. In one reality, you fell into a black hole, while in another, there was no black hole. It's impossible to be certain from outside the event horizon whether a black hole exists until you enter it. If you cross the event horizon and there is a black hole, farewell. However, if you happen to be in a reality where the black hole didn't exist, you'd still be alive, just in a different universe.

So, would you dare to explore this possibility? Are you drawn to the mysteries of black holes in the universe? Stay tuned for your next hypothetical adventure.