AST 112 - Chapter 24 - Week 5

Spring 2025 | Exam 3

What is a unique property of a black hole?

it is extremely dense in mass

What is the name of the “surface” of a black hole, inside of which any radiation emitted cannot escape and will not be seen by an outside observer?

The event horizon

What term is used in the lecture to describe the stretching and tearing apart of an object as it gets closer to a black hole?

Spaghettification

What can prevent a star from collapsing into a black hole?

Radiation pressure counterbalancing gravitational pressure

What evidence suggests the presence of supermassive black holes at the centers of the galaxies?

Observations of matter being ejected in narrow jets from galaxy centers

Why was Cygnus X-1 significant in the study of black holes?

It was identified as an accretion disk around a black hole

What is a characteristic feature of black holes that distinguishes them from stars in terms of mass?

Black holes can grow without bound, unlike stars which explode too much if too much mass is added

What is the location where the gravitational pull between two orbiting objects is equal, and sometimes used for placing space telescopes?

The Lagrange Point

What makes a black hole an extreme object?

It exposes matter to stronger gravitational forces than anything else