Lectures / 16/12/2009 7:30 pm

Open Space?

Falling into a Black Hole. Spaghettification and other exploits

What would an adventurous astronaut experience if he or she should happen to fall into a Black Hole? For one thing they would experience bodily the enormous G forces at work inside a Black Hole. They would be tremendously elongated – spaghettified – and they would also get a chance to contemplate themselves from behind for some time. The lecture sketches the theoretical scenarios of a hypothetical fall into a Black Hole and how this would appear to a distant observer. Nor will speculative questions be entirely omitted: Is it possible to pass through a Black Hole unhurt? And where would you arrive at the end of such a trip?