How far can you compress something before you reach nature’s ultimate breaking point—that is, before you create a black hole? Receive emails about upcoming NOVA programs and related content, as well ...

“If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants.” This famous quote by Isaac Newton points to an axiom that lies at the heart of The Sciences — knowledge precedes ...

It can be easy for one to feel insignificant in this universe. After all, we are small creatures on a relatively small rock that orbits one of many billion stars within one of many billion galaxies.

A black hole is a celestial body whose gravity is so great that even the fastest light in the world cannot escape. Black holes are not within reach of humans, but what happens if humans approach a ...

As some really smart person once said, “black holes are where God (or the Flying Spaghetti monster, maybe) divided by zero.” It was probably meant to be a joke, but there’s certainly a kernel of truth ...

Pretty much anything could, in theory, become a black hole if it were squeezed down small enough. At what point would the Earth become a (very unimpressive) black hole in space? We’re going to figure ...

This illustration shows how photons are bent around a black hole by its gravity. The size of the shadow of a black hole is different from the size of the event horizon, which are both different than ...

The Schwarzschild Radius is a characteristic radius associated with every quantity of mass. The Schwarzschild Radius is a characteristic radius associated with every quantity of mass. It is a radius ...