A black hole is an object where gravity is so strong that beyond a certain point everything, even light, can only fall in.

Black holes are typically found in two different sizes, smaller stellar-mass ones and huge, supermassive ones.

Black holes are detected by how they affect their surroundings. Sometimes we find material orbiting an invisible object.

The region near a black hole might have glowing stuff in a disk around it and some radiation, so don’t get too close.

Black holes often love to dance with other objects in the universe, including regular stars.

Black holes also can also be in orbit with other objects like white dwarfs, neutron stars, and even other black holes.

If material gets too close to a black hole, it first forms a disk and spirals in from there.

Supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies can gather up a bunch of gas, dust, stars, and smaller black holes.

Anything that wanders too close to a black hole can be torn apart and pulled in.

Black holes can create a light show with superhot disks of gas and jets of material thrown off at nearly light speed.

We learn about black holes with a combination of telescopes and detectors ... on Earth and in space!