A black hole is a region in space where the gravitational pull is so strong that nothing, not even light, can escape from it. Black holes form when massive stars collapse in on themselves at the end of their lives. The collapse creates a singularity, a point of infinite density, surrounded by an event horizon, which marks the boundary beyond which nothing can escape.

The concept of a black hole was first proposed by the British physicist John Michell in 1783, based on the idea that an object with enough mass and density would have a gravitational pull so strong that light could not escape from it. However, it was not until the early 20th century that the concept of a black hole began to be explored in detail by physicists and astronomers.

The term “black hole” was coined in the mid-1960s by the American physicist John Wheeler, who helped to popularize the concept of black holes and their properties. Since then, black holes have been the subject of intense scientific study and have been observed indirectly through their gravitational effects on nearby matter, as well as through the detection of the gravitational waves produced when black holes merge.

In recent years, advances in observational astronomy have allowed scientists to directly image black holes for the first time. In April 2019, the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration released the first-ever image of a black hole, which was located at the center of the galaxy Messier 87, approximately 55 million light-years from Earth. This groundbreaking discovery marked a major milestone in our understanding of black holes and their properties.

But A new study reveals black holes could be the source of dark energy, the mysterious force that drives the universe’s expansion, and that they may be growing together with the universe.

Published papers: Paper1, Paper2

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