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-Most black holes are formed when stars collapse and die. Stars use fuel during their lifetimes, and they reach the end of their lives as their fuel is burned. Once the hydrogen that fuels a star is quickly used up, the star starts to use helium as fuel. When there is no more fuel, the star collapses. When a star dies, it can explode and send material off into space. During the collapse, the core of star begins to compress to its gravitational center. The core continues to compress and becomes denser over time. This dense object, which pulls all materials towards it, is now a black hole.
How Do Black Holes Work?
-Black holes use gravitation pulls to consume everything that closely passes by them. Black holes can consume light, gas, dust, and other objects in space. As the black hole pulls objects and light into its center, it gains more size and mass. Since black holes are formed from the burning, exploding, and movement of dying stars, black holes tend to spin in space. When you see images of light and matter being pulled into a black hole, you will see the matter swirling around a black center.
Where Are They Found?
-Scientists can only see black holes by noticing light and objects pulled towards a single point. In a sense, they notice the black hole's gravity before they notice the black hole. Small black holes can be found wherever a collapsed star is found. Smaller black holes are hard to spot, and they tend to be isolated. Scientists guess that there are as many as ten million to a billion black holes that are small and isolated in nature. Supermassive black holes are different because they primarily exist at the center of galaxies. In fact, scientists estimate that nearly all galaxies have a supermassive black hole at the center. Even our galaxy is likely to have one.
