Introduction to Black Holes

Black holes are regions in space with extreme gravitational forces, so strong that nothing, not even light, can escape. They form when massive stars collapse under their own gravity.

The event horizon is the boundary around a black hole beyond which no information or matter can return. It's essentially the 'point of no return' where escape becomes impossible due to extreme gravity.

At the center of a black hole lies the singularity, a point of infinite density where the laws of physics break down. It's a one-dimensional point where all the black hole's mass is concentrated.

Stephen Hawking theorized that black holes emit radiation due to quantum effects near the event horizon. This radiation, known as Hawking radiation, implies that black holes can eventually evaporate over time.

Near a black hole, time slows down dramatically due to its immense gravity. This time dilation effect means that an observer far from the black hole would see events happening near it in slow motion.

A spinning black hole can drag space-time around it, causing nearby objects to move in a 'frame-dragging' effect known as the Lense-Thirring effect.