How black holes work
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How Black Holes Form
Anatomy of a Black Hole
Types of Black Holes
Spacetime and the Cosmic Speed Limit
At its core, a black hole is a region of spacetime where the gravitational field is so intense that the escape velocity exceeds the speed of light. To understand why this creates a point of no return, we have to look at the relationship between gravity and the geometry of .
If a massive object is compressed down to a critical radius, the escape velocity reaches the speed of light . Because relativity dictates that nothing can travel faster than , any particle or photon inside this boundary is mathematically forbidden from escaping. The boundary marking this point of no return is known as the event horizon.