where G is the gravitational constant, M is the mass of the black hole, and c is the speed of light.
What would be the radius of a black hole of (a) Earth's mass, (b) the Sun's mass, and (3) 1 billion solar masses?
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Black holes are solutions of the General Theory of Relativity and require
advanced mathematics for their understanding. However, some results from this
theory are very simple. One is the prediction for the radius
R of a spherically
symmetric black hole without rotation (the Schwartzchild solution):
where G is the gravitational constant, M is the mass of the black hole, and c is the speed of light. What would be the radius of a black hole of (a) Earth's mass, (b) the Sun's mass, and (3) 1 billion solar masses? |
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Compare the relative sizes of a 1 solar mass black hole with a normal star companion of one solar mass in a binary system. How large, relative to the approximately 400 light year diameter accretion ring imaged by the Hubble Telescope in NGC 4261, would the central black hole be if it has a mass of one billion solar masses? |