Definitions for black hole
black hole

Princeton's WordNetRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. black holenoun

   a region of space resulting from the collapse of a star; extremely high gravitational field

WiktionaryRate this definition:5.0 / 1 vote

1. black holenoun

   A gravitationally domineering celestial body with an event horizon from which even light cannot escape; the most dense material in the universe, condensed into a singularity, usually formed by a collapsing massive star.

2. black holenoun

   A sphere of influence into which or from which communication or similar activity is precluded.

3. black holenoun

   An entity which consumes time or resources without demonstrable utility.

WikipediaRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Black hole

   A black hole is a region of spacetime where gravity is so strong that nothing, including light or other electromagnetic waves, has enough energy to escape its event horizon. The theory of general relativity predicts that a sufficiently compact mass can deform spacetime to form a black hole. The boundary of no escape is called the event horizon. Although it has a great effect on the fate and circumstances of an object crossing it, it has no locally detectable features according to general relativity. In many ways, a black hole acts like an ideal black body, as it reflects no light. Moreover, quantum field theory in curved spacetime predicts that event horizons emit Hawking radiation, with the same spectrum as a black body of a temperature inversely proportional to its mass. This temperature is of the order of billionths of a kelvin for stellar black holes, making it essentially impossible to observe directly. Objects whose gravitational fields are too strong for light to escape were first considered in the 18th century by John Michell and Pierre-Simon Laplace. In 1916, Karl Schwarzschild found the first modern solution of general relativity that would characterize a black hole. David Finkelstein, in 1958, first published the interpretation of "black hole" as a region of space from which nothing can escape. Black holes were long considered a mathematical curiosity; it was not until the 1960s that theoretical work showed they were a generic prediction of general relativity. The discovery of neutron stars by Jocelyn Bell Burnell in 1967 sparked interest in gravitationally collapsed compact objects as a possible astrophysical reality. The first black hole known was Cygnus X-1, identified by several researchers independently in 1971.Black holes of stellar mass form when massive stars collapse at the end of their life cycle. After a black hole has formed, it can grow by absorbing mass from its surroundings. Supermassive black holes of millions of solar masses (M☉) may form by absorbing other stars and merging with other black holes. There is consensus that supermassive black holes exist in the centres of most galaxies. The presence of a black hole can be inferred through its interaction with other matter and with electromagnetic radiation such as visible light. Any matter that falls onto a black hole can form an external accretion disk heated by friction, forming quasars, some of the brightest objects in the universe. Stars passing too close to a supermassive black hole can be shredded into streamers that shine very brightly before being "swallowed." If other stars are orbiting a black hole, their orbits can determine the black hole's mass and location. Such observations can be used to exclude possible alternatives such as neutron stars. In this way, astronomers have identified numerous stellar black hole candidates in binary systems and established that the radio source known as Sagittarius A*, at the core of the Milky Way galaxy, contains a supermassive black hole of about 4.3 million solar masses. On 11 February 2016, the LIGO Scientific Collaboration and the Virgo collaboration announced the first direct detection of gravitational waves, representing the first observation of a black hole merger. On 10 April 2019, the first direct image of a black hole and its vicinity was published, following observations made by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) in 2017 of the supermassive black hole in Messier 87's galactic centre. As of 2021, the nearest known body thought to be a black hole is around 1,500 light-years (460 parsecs) away (see list of nearest black holes). Though only a couple dozen black holes have been found so far in the Milky Way, there are thought to be hundreds of millions, most of which are solitary and do not cause emission of radiation. Therefore, they would only be detectable by gravitational lensing.

ChatGPTRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. black hole

   A black hole is a region in space where the gravitational field is so strong that nothing, including particles and electromagnetic radiation such as light, can escape from it. It is the result of a massive star collapsing under its own weight after it has exhausted its nuclear fuel. This collapse causes a point of singularity where the gravitational field is infinitely strong. The boundary of this region from which no escape is possible is called the event horizon. According to Einstein's Theory of Relativity, both time and space are warped in the vicinity of a black hole.

Webster DictionaryRate this definition:4.5 / 2 votes

1. Black hole

   a dungeon or dark cell in a prison; a military lock-up or guardroom; -- now commonly with allusion to the cell (the Black Hole) in a fort at Calcutta, into which 146 English prisoners were thrust by the nabob Suraja Dowla on the night of June 20, 17656, and in which 123 of the prisoners died before morning from lack of air

WikidataRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Black hole

   A black hole is a region of spacetime from which gravity prevents anything, including light, from escaping. The theory of general relativity predicts that a sufficiently compact mass will deform spacetime to form a black hole. Around a black hole, there is a mathematically defined surface called an event horizon that marks the point of no return. The hole is called "black" because it absorbs all the light that hits the horizon, reflecting nothing, just like a perfect black body in thermodynamics. Quantum field theory in curved spacetime predicts that event horizons emit radiation like a black body with a finite temperature. This temperature is inversely proportional to the mass of the black hole, making it difficult to observe this radiation for black holes of stellar mass or greater. Objects whose gravity fields are too strong for light to escape were first considered in the 18th century by John Michell and Pierre-Simon Laplace. The first modern solution of general relativity that would characterize a black hole was found by Karl Schwarzschild in 1916, although its interpretation as a region of space from which nothing can escape was first published by David Finkelstein in 1958. Long considered a mathematical curiosity, it was during the 1960s that theoretical work showed black holes were a generic prediction of general relativity. The discovery of neutron stars sparked interest in gravitationally collapsed compact objects as a possible astrophysical reality.

The New Hacker's DictionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. black hole

   [common] What data (a piece of email or netnews, or a stream of TCP/IP packets) has fallen into if it disappears mysteriously between its origin and destination sites (that is, without returning a bounce message). “I think there's a black hole at foovax!” conveys suspicion that site foovax has been dropping a lot of stuff on the floor lately (see drop on the floor). The implied metaphor of email as interstellar travel is interesting in itself. Readily verbed as blackhole: “That router is blackholing IDP packets.” Compare bit bucket and see RBL.

Military Dictionary and GazetteerRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. black hole

   The appellation familiarly given in England to the dungeon or dark cell of a prison. The name is associated with a horrible catastrophe in the history of British India, namely, the cruel confinement of a party of English in an apartment called the “Black Hole of Calcutta,” on the night of June 19, 1756. The garrison of a fort at Calcutta having been captured by the nabob Surajah Dowlah, he caused the whole of the prisoners taken, 146 in number, to be confined in an apartment 20 feet square, having only two small windows, which were obstructed by a veranda. After a night of excruciating agony from heat, thirst, and want of air, there remained in the morning but 23 survivors.

Suggested ResourcesRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. black hole

   Song lyrics by black hole -- Explore a large variety of song lyrics performed by black hole on the Lyrics.com website.

2. black hole

   Read the full text of the Black Hole poem by Kurt Philip Behm on the Poetry.com website.

Matched Categories

1. • Region

How to pronounce black hole?

1. Alex

   US English

   David

   US English

   Mark

   US English

   Daniel

   British

   Libby

   British

   Mia

   British

   Karen

   Australian

   Hayley

   Australian

   Natasha

   Australian

   Veena

   Indian

   Priya

   Indian

   Neerja

   Indian

   Zira

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   Oliver

   British

   Wendy

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   Fred

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   Tessa

   South African

How to say black hole in sign language?

Numerology

1. Chaldean Numerology

   The numerical value of black hole in Chaldean Numerology is: 4

2. Pythagorean Numerology

   The numerical value of black hole in Pythagorean Numerology is: 6

Examples of black hole in a Sentence

1. Chris Harrison:

   There is a supermassive black hole at the center of our Milky Way, there is now good evidence that this black hole has driven large amounts of energy into the galaxy in the past, through the so-called ‘Fermi Bubbles,’ as well as other evidence. It is likely that billions of years ago the Milky Way was forming stars much more rapidly and the black hole may have played a role in shutting this down. However, this is not well understood. It is worth pointing out that the galaxies where we believe supermassive black holes have had the most influence are ‘dead’ with little-to-no stars forming. In contrast, the Milky Way is still forming stars (around one per year).

2. Paul Kuin:

   The Cow produced a large cloud of debris in a very short time, shredding a bigger star to produce a cloud like this would take a bigger black hole, result in a slower brightness increase and take longer for the debris to be consumed.

3. Andrea Ghez:

   What's so special about S0-2 is we have its complete orbit in three dimensions, that's what gives us the entry ticket into the tests of general relativity. We asked how gravity behaves near a supermassive black hole and whether Einstein's theory is telling us the full story. Seeing stars go through their complete orbit provides the first opportunity to test fundamental physics using the motions of these stars.

4. Giorgos Leloudas:

   We observed the source for 10 months following the event and have concluded that the explanation is unlikely to lie with an extraordinarily bright supernova, our results indicate that the event was probably caused by a rapidly spinning supermassive black hole as it destroyed a low-mass star.

5. Dan Wilkins:

   The reason we can see that is because that black hole is warping space, bending light and twisting magnetic fields around itself.

References

1. ^ Princeton's WordNet
   http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=black hole
2. ^ Wiktionary
   https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Black_Hole
3. ^ Wikipedia
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Hole
4. ^ ChatGPT
   https://chat.openai.com
5. ^ Webster Dictionary
   https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/black hole
6. ^ Wikidata
   https://www.wikidata.org/w/index.php?search=black hole
7. ^ The New Hacker's Dictionary
   https://www.gutenberg.org/files/3008/3008-h/3008-h.htm#BlackHole
8. ^ Military Dictionary and Gazetteer
   https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/59563/pg59563-images.html