Energy Inquiry- Black Holes.

 In the first 5 weeks of Term 2, we have been creating inquiries about Energy. We got to go in a pair, so I went with Lucy. Lucy and I decided to make our inquiry about Black Holes and the energy around them. Black holes are massive objects in space, mostly in the center of a galaxy.

We chose 5 questions and tried to answer them, those were our facts. We made a model with our facts on it. We also put a hole in the model so we could pull little pictures of energy, astronauts, and aliens into our model.

This was a really fun inquiry to do and I'm glad we chose to do black holes. Next time I could check my work before I print it because I found a few spelling mistakes!

What are Black Holes?

Black holes are rotating objects in space that pull energy into them. The gravitational pull is so strong that not even light can escape. Because of this, black holes are invisible to the human eye. Why? Since no light can escape, there is no light to look at. See, humans need light to be reflecting off the object to be able to see something. Black holes absorb light, making them so dark they are invisible. 

Let us get this straight. Black holes aren’t holes. They’re objects.

Black holes “Suck” absolutely EVERYTHING in. It wouldn’t care if you were its best friend when you were kids. It won’t care if you gave it free candy. It’s going to eat you up (And the candy too) no matter what you do.

What happens if you go in a black hole?

Just like with a planet or a star, as you get closer you get caught in the black hole’s gravitational pull. If you were in a spacesuit, outside the spaceship, it would be impossible to escape because the gravity is so strong. If you were inside a ship then it would be possible to fly away. If you’re thinking we could just swan dive into a black hole and see what’s on the other side, then you’re wrong. Firstly, you wouldn’t be able to get out, so you’ll never see your friends and family again. Secondly, as soon as you go into the black hole, you are going to get ripped apart before you even get to the other side.  

Just before the “Hole” of the black hole you will get to a place called the event horizon. Once you pass this, or even get close to it, then you’re probably never going back to earth.

Once you get to the “Hole” of a black hole, you wouldn’t hit an object like if you were going to a star. This is called the singularity. Once you are there, you are there. You have reached the point of no return.

How are black holes made?

Black holes can be made during the death of an old star, also known as a supernova. When all the fuels and gasses from the core of the star are all gone and exhausted, the core becomes unstable, and it gravitationally collapses into itself, or implodes. Then the outer parts of the star are blown away. All the weight of the matter compresses the dying star until it turns into an object of no volume and infinite density.

Can we get energy from black holes?

No. While there is plenty of energy in black holes that could be of great use to humans the gravitational pull is too strong for humans to resist. 

Although, a new study says that someday energy could be harnessed from black holes. According to a man called Luca Cossimo, we could get energy from our universal overlords. "Black holes are commonly surrounded by a hot 'soup' of plasma particles that carry a magnetic field," said Comisso. "Our theory shows that when magnetic field lines disconnect and reconnect in just the right way, they can accelerate plasma particles to negative energies, and large amounts of black hole energy can be extracted."

If you don’t understand that… it basically means it’s possible to get energy when plasma particles are accelerated, which means they get higher energies. This is also what happens in a particle accelerator.

But what kinds of energy are in black holes? Of course, with most things, they produce kinetic energy (motion energy) and potential energy (energy that is stored and can be potentially used. Most of the energy inside black holes is energy from the rest of the universe.

Where are black holes in our universe

There are black holes all over our universe but the closest one, Telescopium, is a mere 1000 light years away. Telescopium is called that because it is inside the constellation of Telescopium. That’s near the constellation of Sagittarius. There are also Supermassive (Which means they are bigger) black holes in the center of every galaxy. Telescopium is the one in the centre of the milky way, which all the stars are slowly orbiting around.