Question: @evankeane What happens to space-time when you enter a black hole

Evan Keane answered on 19 Jun 2011:

Fantastic question! The centre of a black hole is a “singularity”. At a singularity the laws of physics that we know don’t work. So if you got that far I don’t know what would happen. But before that there is an important distance from the centre called the “event horizon”. This is what we usually refer to as the size of the black hole. Once you go inside the event horizon you can NEVER get out. This is because even travelling at the speed of light (the maximum speed it is possible to travel) you cannot escape!

Some interesting facts.
1. As you pass the event horizon you would not notice a difference. Nothing is different about space time here.
2. When you hit the singularity, I don’t know what happens. Maybe you should become a physicist and work it out as nobody knows and you’d probably get a Nobel prize!
3. Because time behaves differently according to gravity (and gravity is very strong for a black hole), what somebody looking at you from afar would see would be different to what you experience! They would never see you reach the event horizon, just getting closer and closer and to them it would look like your time was slowing down to a halt!
4. None of it matters really because if you were falling into a black hole you would be dead way before you got to the event horizon! How come? Well the difference in gravity between your head and your feet would be so strong that your body would be stretched out like a piece of spaghetti and that would probably kill you I think! Actually astronomers call this “spaghettification” which I think is a cool word, but it wouldn’t be cool to experience it. 😛