The universe has some strange objects that are terrifying yet fascinating, but the creepiest of them all are black holes.
These gluttonous beasts are so dense that even light can't pass through them.
Astronomers estimate that around 100 million black holes roam among the stars in our Milky Way galaxy. Here are eight crazy facts about them:
1. Black holes are so dense that they create a deep gravity sink. Beyond a certain region, even light can't escape their powerful tug.
2. Astronomers cannot spot a black hole directly as they can with other cosmic objects.
3. There are four types of black holes: stellar, intermediate, supermassive, and miniature.
4. Scientists believe that black holes can be big and small. The smallest ones can be as small as an atom; however, they have the mass of a large mountain.
5. Stellar black holes are formed when a massive star dies. When these stars exhaust all of their fuel, they explode and leave behind a compact, dense object called a black hole.
6. At the heart of the Milky Way lies a supermassive black hole called Sagittarius A. This ginormous structure is around 4 million times the mass of the sun.
7. Black holes can distort time. From the viewpoint of an observer outside the black hole, time stops near the event horizon, as light cannot escape it.
8. The first image of a black hole was captured in 2019 by the Event Horizon Telescope collaboration.