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Ask Dr. Universe black hole
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What is a white hole? — Darwin, 11, British Columbia, Canada and Rubal, 9, Australia

Dear Darwin and Rubal,

Before I read your question, I had never heard of a white hole.

So, I scampered over to my friend Vivienne Baldassare to find out more. She’s an astrophysicist at Washington State University.

She told me that, so far, white holes are just an idea. It’s what happens if you take math about black holes and work it backwards.

“White holes are really the mathematical inverse of a black hole,” Baldassare said. “But we have no reason to think they exist right now.”

A black hole is an area in space that has gobs of gravity.

We’re familiar … » More …

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What happens if you get sucked up by a black hole? – Amari, 10, North Carolina

Dear Amari,

I was fascinated by black holes as a kitten. I liked them because they were scary. But they’re also far away so I knew I was safe.

I talked about this with my friend Vivienne Baldassare. She’s an astronomer at Washington State University.

Baldassare told me a black hole is an area in space with lots of gravity. That’s the same force that pulls your body toward the Earth.

“If we want to send a spacecraft somewhere else in the solar system, it has to travel fast enough to escape the gravity of Earth—so the rocket doesn't just fall back down to Earth,” she said. “A black hole is a place where that escape speed is the speed of light. Nothing can move faster than the speed of light. So, nothing can escape from inside the black hole.”

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