It’s hard to imagine what would happen if you fell into a black hole. A recent simulation has revealed this terrifying experience.
According to NASA, black holes are not actually empty voids but “massive amounts of matter compressed into a very small space” and there is still “much we don’t know,” such as “what the matter inside the event horizon of a black hole looks like.”
Black holes are among the strangest spaces in the vast universe. Due to their immense size, they warp space and time, and because of their dense matter, their core is referred to as a “singularity”, which is also a place pitch black, as no form of matter, including light, can escape. So, what would happen if you accidentally fell into such a black hole?
Falling into a black hole, tidal forces will quickly tear your body apart before you even cross the event horizon.
Nothing can escape from a black hole
NASA notes that “the gravitational force just beneath the surface of the black hole, the event horizon, is so strong that nothing – not even light – can escape.”
“The event horizon is not a surface like Earth or even the Sun. It is a boundary containing all the matter that makes up the black hole. However, there are many things that scientists have learned about black holes,” said Zack D. Films, a content creator on YouTube who often creates simulation videos.
Recently, he simulated what would happen if one fell into a black hole, and the experience is as horrifying as you might imagine.
As you enter the black hole, your body will gradually be stretched. The gravitational pull becomes stronger as you approach the center. This force is known as tidal forces, according to Charles Liu, an astrophysicist at the American Museum of Natural History.
Liu explains that when an object crosses the “event horizon” of a black hole (an imaginary surface surrounding the black hole), light can no longer escape, and as the object gets closer to the singularity, those tidal forces become even stronger, elongating and tearing the object apart.
Black hole – one of the strangest spaces in the universe. (Image: Wikimedia Commons)
In a smaller black hole (about the size of Earth, for instance), the tidal forces will quickly tear your body apart before you can even cross the event horizon.
“The British astrophysicist Sir Martin Rees refers to this process as spaghettification. In the end, you would simply be a stream of subatomic particles spiraling into the black hole,” Liu said.
“Because almost immediately your brain would break down into its constituent atoms, you would have little chance to ‘gaze’ inside a black hole the size of Earth. Therefore, if you want to preserve your body a bit longer, we recommend seeking out a larger black hole,” Liu noted.
In this case, you might experience the effects of spacetime curvature as mentioned in Einstein’s general theory of relativity. “First, you would reach speeds close to the speed of light as you fall into the black hole, moving faster through space but slower through time. After crossing the ‘event horizon,’ you may still see objects outside, but the outside world would not be able to see you because light in the black hole cannot escape,” Liu shared.
