If nothing is faster than light, how is it possible that a black hole can suck in light?
554157
Here's the rub - nothing can travel through space faster than the speed of light - but since escape velocity (the speed which a body must attain to break free of a gravitaional field) depends on density, if a body of matter is sufficiently dense, the its escape veolcity can exceed the speed of light - meaning that light itself is captured in its gravitational field and cannot break free.
697469
it can be. Because blackhole has a much faster velocity than light. It is possible that we can use blackhole to travel into another galaxy or another space that we haven't know before. Or maybe we can use blackhole as a time machine. Everything can happen, one day we can find it out. I believe that
122048
Peple I know you want the points, but can you please not just make up answers out of whole cloth like that?\n\n>>>>>Massive objects cannot go the speed of light.\n\nYeah, they can. They can't accellarate to the speed of light but they can be created at lightspeed and continue on.\n\n>>>>>> However if they could, no you could not see, becuase the light could not go furthur then the builbs at the front of your car\n\nNonsense. The speed of light is constant for all frames of reference. From the FOR of the bulbs the light would be seen travelling away from it at lightspeed. \n\n>>>> You'd be seeing the light go by your side.\n\nNo, you would not be seeing the light by your side. You would still be seeing all light in the universe travelling away form you or towards you at the speed of light, just as you do at your current velocity\n>>>>>The light would not shine out in front of you because you are going the same speed.\n\nIncorrect. Light always sines out in front at lightspeed in the observers FOR. It makes no difference if that FOR is stationary or lightspeed itself.\n\nYou quite obviously made that answer up.\n\nws, this question seems to get asked here every couple of days. You can go back and have a look and see it answered quite well several times.\n\nIn brief,\n\nLight is funny stuff. Light always travels at the same speed relative to you, it doens't matter how fast you travel. \n\nIf you are sitting still and a person is going past you at light speed you can both look at exactly the same light beam, and it will be travelling at lightspeed compared to both of you.\n\nIf you are going at lightspeed and turn on the headlights the light will move away fomr you at lightspeed. If it strikes something it will be refelected back at lightspeed. If someone is sitting completely still beside you he will also see that light move away form him at lightspeed, and get reflected back at lightspeed.\n\nIt's weird stuff light, it doesn't behave like anything else. The answer to any question that asks how fast light is moving towards you or away from you is always "lightspeed". It doesn’t matter what else we add to the question, the answer is always 'lightspeed".\n\nSo if the light leaves the bulbs at lightspeed and gets reflected back at lightspeed does that mean you could see?\n\nProbably not. \n\nAlthough light doesn't change speed relative to the observer it does change wavelength. The faster you travel towards a light source the bluer it will look. \n\nAny object that your headlights strike will reflect the light back to you at lightspeed, that's OK. But because you are travelling towards the object at lightspeed the light will be shifted way, way towards the blue end of the spectrum. It would all be ultraviolet an X-rays. The human eye simply can't see those wavelengths. So plenty of light would be reflected back, but it wouldn't be visible to you. As a result it would all look dark.\n\n\n>>>>> if the interior light inside your car was on at\n>>>>> the time would you see that?\n\nYes. Because both you and it are travelling at the same speed it woulnd't be red shifted at all. Similarly because you and the interior of the car are travelling at the same speed you would be able to see the light reflected off that just fine as well.\n\nEverything in the universe that is travelling as fast as you will look normal.Everything outside will appear black.
21593
I'm not sure what a blackhole is, But I have heard that it is a star that has such a strong gravitational pull that even light can't escape.
220239
Black holes, because of their mass density, can "suck" things\ninto them but they don't do so all the time. For some reason,\nas yet unknown, black holes have periods of dormancy when\nthey stop "sucking". Quite an accomplishment for something\nthat is supposed to operate on such an elemental force as\nmass density. Black holes are also not the rare thing that\npeople would have you believe. There is one at the center\nof every galaxy that we are able to observe - including our\nown Milky Way galaxy.
979267
light has mass.light Is made of photon particles and they have mass.do you know the mass of light coming from sun on earth per day is about 30000 tons.yes it is true.photon particles has a very little mass but they do have and  that is why light has mass.and so it gets pulled by a black hole.only black holes have the needed g force to pull light back.light  travels so fast at approximate 300000km per second so it can't be pulled by other stars though they are huge
5155
Because a "black hole" has a gravitational field so strong, light cannot escape.  Therefore, all we can see is that nothing is there, which appears like "blackness" to us, and since light "falls" into it, it's a "hole".\n\nThus, black hole.
657426
Well the sad truth is YOU CAN'T...in fact you can't even travel at one times the speed of light. Einstein covered this about 100 years ago. Anything that has mass cannot achieve the speed of light for a couple of different reasons. Trust me on this.
721536
Black is the absence of light.  If black holes suck in light too then they can't be black inside surely?
148002
It's technically impossible for something with mass (like a spacecraft) to go the speed of light in our universe under the laws of physics.  As something approaches the speed of light, it gains mass.  In theory, if something were to actually go the speed of light, it would have infinite mass, which is impossible.  \n\nOf course, no one can say for sure.  Science fiction on television and in books have gotten around these rules by using wormholes, subspace, etc., none of which are known to actually exist.
53622
Well, its absolutely impossible to travel at or faster then the speed of light, but lets pretend you can so i can actually give you an answer to the question. The speed of light is actually the ultimate speed limit to the universe, nothing can travel faster than light, so although you would expect the light to be going at twice the speed of light (you plus the speed of light)it can't because it is physically impossible for even light to travel faster than the speed of light so it would be going slower than you and not reach any path in front of you. Of course, if you turned on your headlights before you started moving, the light would be one step ahead of you.\n\nOf course, still, nothing can go faster then the speed of light because in the formula for time dialation(time slows down for an object moving close to the speed of light) t'=t/sqrt(1-v^2/c^2) where t' is the time passing for an outside observer, t is the time that passes for the object going at the high velocity, v is velocity, speed is the speed of light and ^2 is squared. (note: this formula is definately correct, it's part of einstein's theory of relativity and I've had to derive it myself for class in the past) so if v was bigger than c, you would have a number greater than one and therefore a negative number under a square root, which is impossible.
648382
In the vacuum light can get the high speed.\nAfter that you have gas, liquid an then solid.\nThis is because the density of matter. The more dense the matter is the more athoms there are, making it harder for the light to pass.
600967
No there is no 'summation' of speeds involved with light.  Light is Electro-Magnetic Energy, although light travels as particles as well as waves.  In this Universe the speed of light is a constant, roughly 186,000 miles-per-second, or 300,000 km/sec or 300 Mega-Metres / sec.  Unless some POWERFUL external force acts upon light, it cannot change speed.  This entails the gravity of black-holes and such. (Not even light can escape from them.)\n\nA vehicle might weigh somewhere in the neighbor-hood of 3,300 lbs. (Approximately 1,500 Kg, for those of you who have not learned to count properly, just yet ...)\nCheck out da' math ...\n\n60mph = 100 kmph = 27.77r mps. \n(1,500 Kg x 27.77r mps) / 9.81 mps = ~ 4,246 N\n\nI doubt, very seriously, that a little over 4,000 Newtons is enough force to even put a dent in the factor of light-speed.  For more info, look-up Einstein's Theory of Realtivity' (Although I believe 90% of it to be short-sighted ancient crap ...)  This subject is covered in it ...\n(umm covered in Einstein's Theory, not copvered in crap .. which err .. is the same thing at times ...
1042298
No it can't.\n\nLaser light goes at exactly the speed of light.
383723
The answer to that can fill a book:\n\nIn astronomy, a black hole is a region in time and space within which gravity is so strong that nothing can escape, not even electromagnetic radiation such as visible light. Black holes are thought to surround certain celestial objects. \n\nThe idea of a black hole (if not the term itself) is not new. As the intensity of the gravitational field around an object increases, so does the escape velocity. The escape velocity for a celestial mass (such as a star, planet, or moon) is the vertical speed with which an object must be hurled from the surface in order to fly forever beyond the gravitational influence of the mass. If a substantial celestial body such as a star becomes small enough in diameter, the escape velocity at the surface can theoretically exceed the velocity of light. This idea occurred to astronomers even in Isaac Newton's time. Modern astronomers believe they have observed black holes, consisting of stars that have collapsed under their own gravitation after spending their nuclear fuel. Black holes are also believed to exist at the centers of galaxies, including our own. \n\nA black hole produces bizarre effects on time and space. As seen from outside, an object falling into a black hole would approach the so-called event horizon, which is a spherical "one-way membrane" or "Rubicon" surrounding the black hole itself. If the object were a clock, it would seem to run more and more slowly as it approached the event horizon, and would never quite make it inside the black hole. From the reference frame of the falling object, nothing out of the ordinary would take place in the rate at which time passed, and the entry to the black hole would proceed apace, although the gravitational force near the event horizon might tear the falling object apart. \n\nBlack holes have been fodder for wild ideas and science-fiction stories since the concept became well known in the mid-1900s. Some scenarios are sensational to the point of madness. For example, suppose a tiny black hole, manufactured for use as a doomsday weapon, were dropped onto the surface of the earth? It would, as the story goes, proceed to devour the planet with unstoppable and phenomenal violence. \n\nOn the other hand, a worm hole is :supposedly a connection between white holes and black holes above. Do they exist? There are tons of controversy about these and no one can say for sure that they do exist.
557703
Black holes are huge concentrations of mass in a very small area.  So small that it is too small to contain conventional matter as we understand it.  There is a perimeter around a black hole known as the event horizon.  Beyond this point, nothing, not even light can escape the gravitational pull of a black hole.  If you were to be able to stand on the event horizon and have telescopic vision like Superman, looking tangent to the event horizon, you would see the back of your head.
273528
The defining factor of a black hole is that the escape velocity is higher than the speed of light.  This is a function of density and not total mass.  It's possible to have very small black holes.  They can even have masses smaller than that of an atom.  The LHC at CERN, which is expected to come online in 2007, may be capable of producing such microsingularities.  \n\nAs for our universe being a black hole...  from inside it's certainly not.  But, from "outside", if you can define such a thing, maybe it does appear as such, since light cannot escape out universe.  This assumes, however, that there is an outside from which this can be considered, and there's no proof, and perhaps no way to prove, whether or not there is.