Black Holes

1. Distinguishes between an event horizon and an accretion zone of a black hole:
An accretion zone has matter that lingers close to the black hole and spirals inward to form the black hole. Gas and dust particle collide with each other and spin around the hole. An event horizon is a hole that traps things in it forever. Light, dust and other things that get trapped in it can never escape. The event horizon is the imaginary sphere around the black hole.

2. Defines escape velocity, black hole, and the speed of light.
-Speed of Light: The speed of light is a constant in empty space.
-Escape Velocity- Velocity that an object needs to escape the gravitational well of a more massive object.
-Black Hole: An object so dense that light cannot escape from it.

3. Explains the relationship between escape velocity, black hole, and the speed of light.
The event horizon is an imaginary sphere around the black hole where the escape velocity is greater than the speed of light. Once anything crosses the event horizon, nothing, not even light, can escape. When material crosses the event horizon, the mass of the black hole increases, which boosts the black hole's gravitational force and expands its event horizon — the point of no return.

4. Identifies more than one single type of black hole.
Event Horizon and Escape Velocity

5. List evidence that our understanding of black holes has changed.
Miniature black holes might have been created during the Big Bang Theory. The miniature black holes have event horizons as small as the width of an atomic particle. Between 10 and 20 billion years ago, all matter and energy was compressed into a single point. Then this tiny point exploded (the Big Bang) and expanded rapidly.

6. Explain how Hubble Space Telescope's component cameras assist in the search for black holes.
Hubble is a telescope that orbits Earth. Its position above the atmosphere, which distorts and blocks the light that reaches our planet, gives it a view of the universe that typically far surpasses that of ground-based telescopes.

7. List at least 2 myths about black holes that are discredited.
-The volume of a black hole approaches zero. As volume decreases, density increases. Density is the relationship of mass per unit of volume (Density = Mass/Volume). The density of a black hole affects the escape velocity of an object — even light.
- Black holes have a broad range of masses — from the smallest (miniature) to the largest (supermassive).