Halloween is the time of ghosts, goblins and ghouls, but there is nothing scarier in the universe than black holes.
Black holes are regions in space where gravity is so strong that nothing can escape. Half of the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to Roger Penrose for his mathematical work showing that black holes are an inevitable consequence of Einstein's theory of gravity. The second half was shared by Andrea Gaz and Reinhard Genzel shared the other half, showing that a massive black hole is at the center of our galaxy .
Black holes are scary for three reasons:
If you fall into a black hole left over from the death of a star, you will be torn to pieces.
The massive black holes in the center of galaxies have an insatiable appetite.
Black holes are places where the laws of physics are violated.
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According to Stephen Hawking, black holes slowly evaporate. In the distant future of the universe, long after all stars have died and galaxies have disappeared from the view of the accelerating cosmic expansion, black holes will be the last surviving objects.
The most massive black holes take an unimaginable number of years to evaporate. An estimated 10 to the hundredth power, or 10 followed by 100 zeros. The scariest objects in the universe are almost eternal.