A black hole is a region of space containing, at it’s centre, some matter squeezed into a point of infinite density, called a singularity (similar to the singularity of energy that was the first product of the Big Bang), the gravitational pull is so great that nothing, not even light can escape.

Black holes can therefore only be detected from the behaviour of materials around them; those discovered so far consist of a disk of gas and dust spinning around the hole, throwing off hot, high speed jets of material or emitting radiation as matter falls into the hole.

Types of Black Hole

There are to primary types of black hole, supermassive and stellar. Supermassive black holes which have the mass equivalent to billions of suns exising in the centre of most galaxies, including our own!

Stellar black holes are the product of supergiant stars that have exploded and collapsed, these may be common in all galaxies.