How Black Holes are Formed

Black holes form when massive stars run out of fuel and collapse under their own gravity. These stars burn brightly for millions of years, but when they hit empty, they fold in on themselves, and the universe gets a brand-new black hole.

But you don’t get “sucked in” unless you get really, really close. How close? You’d need to cross the event horizon; the invisible edge around a black hole. It’s kind of like a cosmic point of no return.

Inside that horizon, gravity is so intense that not even light can escape. But here’s where it gets wild:

• Time actually slows down near a black hole.

• Some black holes spin, twisting space and time like a cosmic blender.

• Others are surrounded by glowing disks of gas and dust, hot enough to shine across galaxies.

Black holes aren’t exactly rare. Our own Milky Way has a supermassive one right in the center, called Sagittarius A*. Luckily, we’re about 26,000 light-years away—plenty of breathing room.