• Question: Do you know if black holes exist?

    Asked by LOLCharlie to Heather, Helen, Hugh, Jane, Julian on 14 Nov 2014.
    • Photo: Julian Onions

      Julian Onions answered on 14 Nov 2014:

      We’ve never seen a black hole directly, so we don’t know for sure they exist.
      However we do know that there are fantastically massive things that take up very little space, and as far as we know a black hole is the only thing it could possibly be. Nothing else would fit the bill.

      Until we get interstellar travel, or much much better telescopes, we probably have to live with the fact we won’t be able to see one directly.

    • Photo: Helen Johnson

      Helen Johnson answered on 14 Nov 2014:

      Like Julian says, we’ve never actually seen a black hole, but we know that they’re there. They make their presence felt by interacting with other bodies via gravity. As matter falls into a black hole, the black hole emits lots of very high energy radiation.

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