Understanding Light, Black Holes, and Spacetime

Light-Year

The distance that light travels in one year, about 9.46 trillion kilometers (5.88 trillion miles).

Speed of Light in a Vacuum

Approximately 300,000 kilometers per second (km/s), or 186,000 miles per second.

Light Travel Across Earth

Light can travel back and forth between New York and Los Angeles roughly 38 times in one second.

Black Hole

A region of space where gravity is so strong that nothing, not even light, can escape.

Formation of a Black Hole

According to general relativity, when a massive star collapses under its own gravity, it can form a black hole.

Massive Stars in the Milky Way

An estimated one in a thousand stars in the Milky Way is massive enough to potentially become a black hole.

Estimated Black Holes in the Milky Way

Astronomers estimate the Milky Way may contain around 100 million black holes.

John Archibald Wheeler

Credited with the quote: "Matter tells spacetime how to curve. Spacetime tells matter how to move."

General Relativity

Describes how gravity works by explaining how mass curves spacetime.

Gravity in General Relativity

Gravity is the warping of spacetime caused by mass and energy.

Special Relativity

Explains how time, space, and mass change for objects moving at high speeds.

Energy-Matter Equation

E = mc², showing that mass can be converted into energy.

Gravitational Waves

Ripples in spacetime caused by massive, accelerating objects like merging black holes.

Mass and Spacetime

Heavier masses cause greater curvature in spacetime.

Factors That Increase Gravity

More mass leads to stronger gravitational fields.

Theory of Mass-Energy Conversion

Special relativity includes the concept that small amounts of mass can be converted into large amounts of energy.

Visual Model of Gravity

The presentation suggests a stretched fabric or trampoline model to visualize how mass bends spacetime.

Gravity Simulator Purpose

To explore how mass and gravity interact and influence the motion of objects in space.

Massive Object Effect in Simulator

Smaller objects orbit or are pulled toward the massive object, simulating gravity's pull.

Creating a Black Hole in Simulator

A black hole is created when an object becomes dense and massive enough to pull in everything nearby, including light.