Black holes have got a bit of a rep as the vacuum cleaners of the universe, but that analogy doesn't quite stand up to scrutiny. Black holes don't really "suck you in" from afar, you have to cross the event horizon. It's more like falling down a well than being sucked up a tube. That said, it's absolutely nothing like falling down a well. Black holes won't crush you, in fact, they'll do pretty much the opposite. The massive tidal forces and warping of spacetime that occur around a black hole will actually stretch you to death, like a spage-age version of The Rack. This is called spaghettification and it's probably exactly as unpleasant as it sounds. The confusion between crushing and spaghettification may well come from the cause of a black hole in the first place. When an incredibly massive star eventually dies, it collapses in on itself at it gets "crushed" down to an infinitesimally tiny point with zero volume but high mass called a singularity. We don't really know what happens in a black hole. The reason they're black is because light doesn't escape, so we just can't see in. It could be an amazing interdimensional party in there (but probably not). Want to write for What Culture Science? Click here to find out how you could get paid to write about what you love.Love all things science? Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for your next fix.
