What is a black hole?

You may have heard of a black hole before when people are talking about space. Scientists can’t see black holes because they are exactly what they sound like – holes in space that are black and can’t be lit up. They can’t be lit up because they have such strong gravity that they “eat up” any light that comes near them. Black holes are made when a giant star dies or runs out of energy. The center of the star collapses and sucks the star into itself like a vacuum. Gravity on Earth keeps us from floating around, but the gravity from a black hole will “eat” light, stars, or anything else that comes too close. Most black holes are called stellar black holes and are 20 times larger than our sun. That’s not even the biggest kind – supermassive black holes are up to a million times larger than our sun!