It happens because – in the intense gravity field of a black hole – the pull on the astronaut’s feet is greater than the pull on his or her head. Astronaut falling into a black hole (schematic illustration of the spaghettification effect). Thus – as the astronaut approaches the event horizon, the point of no return (assuming they’re falling in feet first) – the astronaut is vertically stretched, as illustrated in the image below, until at last disappearing (again feet first) over the event horizon. It’s that – because gravity is inversely proportional to distance, and because a black hole’s gravity is so exceedingly strong – the pull on the falling astronaut’s legs is substantially greater than the pull on his or her upper torso. It’s not just that the hole’s gravity is strong. We in astronomy have long heard about the intrepid astronaut who ventured too near a black hole’s event horizon (the point beyond which no light can escape) and was “stretched like spaghetti” by the hole’s powerful gravity. Spaghettification is sometimes called the noodle effect. The 2021 lunar calendars are here! Order yours before they’re gone. The event created a flare of light, which they said is the closest such flare recorded to date. But they did capture the star’s last moments, just before it was ripped apart by the black hole, in what astronomers call a tidal disruption event. They didn’t see the star up close as it was being shredded our earthly technologies don’t extend that far. That is, the star is being ripped apart as it falls into a supermassive black hole, in a galaxy only 215 million light-years away. That’s happened a lot in recent decades, but nowhere so interestingly as on Monday, October 12, 2020, when astronomers announced they’ve witnessed a star undergoing spaghettification.
It must be wonderful for astronomers when a concept they learned about in school as theory is seen in the real universe.
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