The Bedtime Scientist

A question

What is a black hole?

A calm, true answer. Then, if the wondering keeps going, the whole episode.

The short answer

A place where gravity has become so strong that nothing can climb back out of it, not even light. One forms when the core of a very large star collapses at the end of its life.

The boundary is called the event horizon, and crossing it is one-way. That is also why a black hole looks black: no light leaves it to reach your eye. It is not a hole in the way a hole in the ground is. It is a place where the pull never lets go.

Go deeper tonight

Black Holes: The Deep Rivers of Space

The full episode, in one calm voice, with nothing that startles.

The episode

Black Holes: The Deep Rivers of Space

0:00 12:50
Sleep timer

Read the guide for this one in the morning.

This connects to

Gravity Light

One idea turns up in many different nights. Follow one and the library starts to join up.