Quote:
Originally posted by 12clicks
If a black hole sucks in light, isn't the gravitational pull of a black hole *faster* than the speed of light?
|
If a "light particle" (photon) is in a black hole it cannot escape because the black hole is so massive that the light particle doesn't have enough energy to escape. It is the black hole's mass bending space and time that prevents the particle from escaping.
Despite the fact that no one has even been to a black hole it is intuitive in a sense. Celestial bodies have escape velocities which depend on the mass of the body. You have to be able to go a certain speed to leave the earth (without constant propulsion).
The next step is wondering if a body can be so massive that not even light could escape. The answer to that question has been called a "black hole". The French mathematician/astronomer Pierre Laplace actually thought of this in the late 1700s. I think there is an appendix in Hawking's first book with Laplace's conjecture for you Hawking fans. I don't have a copy.