Fact of the Day: 30/08/2021

Did you know that massive stars are not the only objects that can collapse to form black holes? In fact, any object can become a black hole if its matter is compressed below a certain radius. That radius is called the Schwarzschild radius (or gravitational radius), and for the Sun it’s about 3 km. So if you could compress the Sun to a radius less than or equal to 3 km, you’d get a black hole. For Earth, the radius is smaller than an atomic nucleus, so you don’t have to worry about our planet becoming a black hole. Pretty cool, right?

Reference(s): https://www.britannica.com/science/Schwarzschild-radius

Fact Author: Ace

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