How We Know Black Holes Exist
Thanks to the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and Space Telescope Science Institute for supporting this video. Support MinutePhysics on Patreon! http://www.patreon.com/minutephysics Link...
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If you’ve heard only one thing about black holes, it’s probably that, once inside ablack hole’s event horizon, nothing, not even light, can escape.At which point it’s natural to wonder, if nothing can escape a black hole, how couldwe ever observe them?How do we even know they exist?Well, only things inside the event horizon are stuck – black holes also gravitationallypull on stuff outside their event horizons, and by looking at that stuff we can get areally good sense that there’s a black hole nearby.For example, lots and lots of stars orbit in pairs , but we also see stars orbitingthings that aren’t normal stars, but instead emit crazy amounts of x-rays – and x-raysin space often come from dust and gas that gets superheated while spiraling into a veryden...
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If you’ve heard only one thing about black holes, it’s probably that, once inside ablack hole’s event horizon, nothing, not even light, can escape.At which point it’s natural to wonder, if nothing can escape a black hole, how couldwe ever observe them?How do we even know they exist?Well, only things inside the event horizon are stuck – black holes also gravitationallypull on stuff outside their event horizons, and by looking at that stuff we can get areally good sense that there’s a black hole nearby.For example, lots and lots of stars orbit in pairs , but we also see stars orbitingthings that aren’t normal stars, but instead emit crazy amounts of x-rays – and x-raysin space often come from dust and gas that gets superheated while spiraling into a veryden...
