Black holes are so named because the gravity at their center is incredibly strong. So much so that it absorbs all the light close to it, and nothing can escape it, whatever its nature.
A black hole has the terrifying power to devour anything of any nature or size, so it's no surprise that these cosmic cracks have become a staple in science fiction films and novels since the name "black hole" was first coined in 1964.
Entering the point of no return
Black holes create the strongest gravitational force we ever know in this vast universe full of secrets. So, at all costs, no one would ever want to get too close to one of them.
But if you got too close, the black hole's gravity would be so strong that you wouldn't be able to escape, even if you were traveling at the speed of light. This point of no return is called the event horizon.
Another reason you don't want to get too close to a black hole is something called the 'spaghetti effect'. Yes, it got its name from the spaghetti noodles!
What is the effect of "spaghetti"?
Imagine an object in space, like a star. When it approaches the black hole, one side of the star is pulled more strongly than the other due to the "suction" of this object.
As one side of the star will be closer to the black hole than the other. So the gravitational pull will be stronger on the side closest to the black hole, and weaker on the far side.
According to the science journal Inverse, this difference in gravitational "tidal force" would cause the stars to separate from each other. It's like putting on a piece of spaghetti pasta dough, when you hold it on one end, the other starts to spin and stretch.
Sometimes astronomers can observe this happening in other galaxies. The technical name is "tidal disturbance event", but it only means that a star has come very close to a black hole, and has been fragmented after it entered the process of "spaghetti" that we explained above.
And in May 2022, astronomers revealed the first-ever image of a black hole at the center of our galaxy.