We didn't see a black hole for many decades. It's because this reputation of black holes sucking up everything is overblown. Things can live very close to the event horizon of a black hole and be very hot. There's stuff swirling around it, but it has some energy, right? And so it can't just fall right in. So how are you seeing something when nothing can escape it? That's what I want to know.
How do supermassive black holes form? Neil deGrasse Tyson and comedian Chuck Nice come to you live to learn about the history of black holes, what’s inside them, and new discoveries with cosmologist Janna Levin and astrophysicist Jenny Greene.
NOTE: StarTalk+ Patrons can listen to this entire episode commercial-free.
Thanks to our Patrons Leigh Momii, Molly Jebsen, Gilbert Cruz, Robert Colonel, Oliver Orofino, and Stephen Coleman for supporting us this week.
Photo Credit: ESO/WFI (Optical); MPIfR/ESO/APEX/A.Weiss et al. (Submillimetre); NASA/CXC/CfA/R.Kraft et al. (X-ray)Derivative work including grading and crop: Julian Herzog, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ on Apple Podcasts to listen to new episodes ad-free and a whole week early.