Is a black hole just a hole in space that contains no mass?

A black hole is a region of spacetime where gravity is so strong that nothing — no particles or even electromagnetic radiation such as light — can escape from it. The theory of general relativity predicts that a sufficiently compact mass can deform spacetime to form a black hole.

Do black holes turn energy into mass?

Two resulting photons could combine to create an electron-positron pair. I would consider the kinetic energy of infalling matter being converted to a pair as a positive answer, black holes do cause energy to convert to matter. The potential gravity energy is converted to particle mass.

Does light stop in a black hole?

Black holes are regions in space-time where gravity’s pull is so powerful that not even light can escape its grasp. However, while light cannot escape a black hole, its extreme gravity warps space around it, which allows light to “echo,” bending around the back of the object.

Are black holes really empty?

The popular description of black holes, especially outside the academia, is that they are highly dense objects; so dense that even light (as particle or as waves) cannot escape it once it falls inside the event horizon. But then we hear things like black holes are really empty, as the matter is no longer there.

How much energy does a black hole release?

Using this method with a non-rotating black hole, 6\% of an object’s mass will be converted into energy. But we can do better. With rotating black holes, which bend the fabric of space time, objects can orbit much closer to the event horizon before falling in, therefore releasing more of their energy–up to 42\%.

What happens when matter falls into a black hole?

These motions imply a dark, massive body whose mass can be computed from the speeds of the stars. The matter that falls into a black hole adds to the mass of the black hole. Its gravity doesn’t disappear from the universe. This animation illustrates the activity surrounding a black hole.

What is a black hole simple definition?

Black Holes. Don’t let the name fool you: a black hole is anything but empty space. Rather, it is a great amount of matter packed into a very small area – think of a star ten times more massive than the Sun squeezed into a sphere approximately the diameter of New York City.