What happens if you fall into a black hole? Infinite suffering, body ‘spaghettification’ and your past ERASED
We really wouldn't recommend a trip to a black hole
FIRST your insides are strung out like hot mozzarella, before you're yanked into an all-encompassing darkness that swallows you whole.
Life inside a black hole would be far from pretty, bestowing a fate more strange and gruesome than almost anything experts can imagine.
Following this week's release of the first photo of a black hole, people the world over have been pondering exactly what would happen if you fell into the ominous ring.
Scientists have dozens of theories, and we've put together some of the wackiest below.
'Spaghettification'
Black holes are blobs of unbelievably dense matter with a gravitational pull millions of times greater than the force we feel on Earth.
If you got too close, these gargantuan forces would pull your body apart.
"You can still expect a normal human lifespan as measured by your own watch and calendar.
"Furthermore, as you fall, there are things that have been falling in front of you that have experienced an even greater 'time dilation' than you have. So if you're able to look forward toward the black hole, you see every object that has fallen into it in the past.
"And then if you look backwards, you'll be able to see everything that will ever fall into the black hole behind you.
"So the upshot is, you'll get to see the entire history of that spot in the universe simultaneously – from the Big Bang all the way into the distant future."
Travel to another universe and erase your past
The late Professor Stephen Hawking had his own ideas about life inside a black hole.
The physicist reckoned there's a chance you could make your way out of one, though you may end up in a different dimension.
Hawking said in 2016: "If you feel you are in a black hole, don’t give up. There’s a way out."
He then claimed that anyone stupid enough to throw themselves into a black hole could be spat out into another universe.
"The existence of alternative histories with black holes suggests this might be possible," Hawking said.
"The hole would need to be large and if it was rotating it might have a passage to another universe. But you couldn’t come back to our universe. So although I’m keen on space flight, I’m not going to try that.
"The message is that black holes aren't as black as they are painted. They are not the eternal prisons they were once thought. Things can get out of a black hole both on the outside and possibly come out in another universe."
Another theory suggests travelling to one of these other dimensions may erase your past as it may not follow the fundamental laws of our own.
Your new universe would not be governed by the rules of cause and effect that apply to ours – so down is up, up is down, and your past and future are interchangeable.
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What do you think happens inside a black hole? Let us know in the comments!
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