Black Holes, Invisible Bodies of Intense

Gravity
A black hole is an almost invisible body in space, created most likely from a collapsed
red super giant star that is so dense that neither light nor matter can escape its
gravitational pull.
Inside a star there is a constant battle between inward pressure from gravity and
outward pressure from heat. If you were to throw an unopened can of soda into a fire,
the beverage would expand from the heat and explode. This is the same principle at
work when a star is burning; its heat is generating great outward pressure but this
constant explosion is matched by gravity that is equally strong, thus a star maintains its
shape and size.
When a star nears the end of its life it cools off slowly and the outwards pressure grows
weaker and weaker as the temperature of the star drops. When the outward pressure
from the heat is nearly gone, the inward pressure of gravity still remains and is
determined by the size of the star. It is theorized that when a star roughly ten times the
size of our Sun nears the end of its life, it shrinks as its own gravity slowly pulls it in, but
as it becomes more and more dense the gravity becomes stronger.
The gravity becomes so intense that not even light can escape it. If you have ever
watched water swirling down a drain, then you have a pretty good idea what happens
as a black hole pulls things in. As matter and light approach the vicinity of a black hole
they are slowly drawn in. If they are not headed straight for the spacial anomaly then
they are taken into a violent and unstable orbit around the black hole until finally the
orbit falls apart and it is sucked down by the immense gravity.
The size of the black hole is determined by the mass of the collapsed star. The critical
radius of a non-rotating black hole is called the Schwarzschild radius, named after the
German astronomer Karl Schwarzschild (1873-1916) who investigated the problem in
1916 on the basis of Einstein's theory of general relativity. According to general
relativity, the gravitation of a black hole bends space and time to such an extent where
they are broken down into a dimensionless body of infinite density.
The boundary around the collapsed star having this radius is referred to as the 'event
horizon'. Anything, whether it be light or matter passing this boundary, will be forever
lost within the black hole with no chance of escape. What happens beyond the event
horizon nobody can tell, because all the laws of physics break down and no longer
apply. There are many theories but little proof to support them.
Black holes can't be seen, as they do not emit any electromagnetic radiation. But they
can be detected because of their effects on the surrounding stars.
In a binary star system, Cygnus X-1, (where the primary is a normal star of
approximately 30 solar masses) due to Doppler shifts from the system it is believed that
there is a companion of approximately 10 to 15 solar masses orbiting the primary. There
are X-ray emissions from the system usually associated with an 'accretion disk' (a hot,
dense disk of gas from the primary star spiraling down into the compact object orbiting
the primary). There is evidence indicating that the X-rays are being emitted from the
orbiting companion. Due to the mass of the companion object it is thought that it is a
black hole.
Evidence of black holes is mounting, and it is now believed that most galaxies of a large
enough size and possibly our own have a black hole at their center.