Black holes have captivated our imagination since they were first theorized, appearing in countless sci-fi movies as cosmic vacuum cleaners that suck in everything around them, including light itself.
But the reality of these cosmic phenomena is far more fascinating—and often wildly different from what popular culture suggests.
Scientists recently discovered that the supermassive black hole at the center of galaxy M87 spins at nearly the speed of light, converting enormous amounts of energy from its rotation into powerful jets visible across millions of light-years.
This single discovery upends several commonly held beliefs about these mysterious objects.
What we thought we knew about black holes is largely wrong. Here’s why.
1. They Don’t Actually “Suck” Things In
Perhaps the most pervasive myth about black holes is that they function like cosmic vacuum cleaners, actively pulling in everything around them with an irresistible force. The truth is far less dramatic—yet more fascinating.
“Black holes don’t suck any more than other objects in space,” explains Dr. Katie Mack, theoretical astrophysicist.
“They have gravity, just like the Earth or Sun, and things orbit them following the same physical laws.”
If you replaced our Sun with a black hole of identical mass, Earth’s orbit wouldn’t change at all. We’d freeze in darkness, but we wouldn’t get pulled in.
What makes black holes unique isn’t some magical pulling power—it’s their incredible density. The event horizon (the boundary beyond which nothing can escape) only captures objects that venture extremely close or are on a direct collision course.
Most matter near black holes doesn’t fall in at all—it orbits. This crucial distinction explains why galaxies don’t collapse into their central black holes and why space near them isn’t empty.
2. They’re Not Actually “Holes” At All
Despite their name, black holes aren’t empty spaces or tunnels in the fabric of the universe. They’re extraordinarily dense concentrations of matter.
“Calling them ‘black holes’ is somewhat misleading,” notes astrophysicist Dr. Janna Levin from Columbia University. “They’re not holes—they’re incredibly compact objects where matter has been compressed to an almost incomprehensible density.”
A black hole with the mass of our Sun would be just about 6 kilometers in diameter. One with Earth’s mass would be roughly the size of a marble.
What we perceive as a “hole” is actually the event horizon—not an opening, but the boundary marking where escape velocity exceeds the speed of light. Beyond this point, the intense gravitational field prevents anything, including light, from escaping.
But what might truly upend your understanding is this: what lies beyond the event horizon isn’t empty space, but rather matter compressed to extraordinary density.
3. They Don’t Destroy Information After All
For decades, physicists were troubled by the “black hole information paradox”—the apparent destruction of information when matter falls into a black hole, which contradicts fundamental principles of quantum mechanics.
This is where conventional wisdom about black holes falls completely apart.
Recent breakthroughs suggest that information isn’t actually destroyed—it may be preserved in unexpected ways. In 2019, Google researcher Sycamore demonstrated quantum supremacy by showing how quantum bits could potentially encode information in ways previously thought impossible, offering clues to how information might be preserved around black holes.
The discovery that information appears encoded in subtle quantum correlations at the event horizon led physicist Leonard Susskind to develop the holographic principle—the idea that all information about what falls into a black hole remains encoded on its surface.
“It’s as if the black hole’s surface functions like a hologram containing all the information about what’s inside,” explains theoretical physicist Dr. Juan Maldacena of the Institute for Advanced Study. “Nothing is truly lost—the information is just encoded differently.”
This isn’t just an esoteric physics debate. If information is preserved rather than destroyed, it fundamentally changes our understanding of the universe’s most basic properties—suggesting reality may operate more like quantum information theory predicts than classical physics allows.
4. They Might Be Gateways to Other Universes—Sort Of
While sci-fi often portrays black holes as wormholes or portals to other dimensions, the scientific reality is both more and less fantastic than fiction suggests.
Einstein’s equations of general relativity, when extended to their mathematical limits, suggest black holes might connect to “white holes”—theoretical objects that can only expel matter and energy, never absorb it. Together, they could form what’s called an Einstein-Rosen bridge.
“The mathematics allows for these connections,” says theoretical physicist Dr. Sabine Hossenfelder. “But maintaining a traversable wormhole would require exotic matter with negative energy density, which we’ve never observed and may not exist.”
What’s truly surprising is that recent research in quantum gravity suggests black holes might encode information about entirely different regions of space-time or potentially other universes altogether.
Black holes may not be portals you could physically travel through, but they might be fundamental connections in the quantum fabric of reality itself. They could represent places where our universe connects with others on a quantum level—not passages for physical objects, but information conduits between realities.
5. They’re Not Necessarily Black
Despite their name and popular depiction, black holes aren’t exactly black.
In 1974, Stephen Hawking made the groundbreaking prediction that black holes should emit radiation due to quantum effects near the event horizon. This “Hawking radiation” means black holes actually glow—albeit faintly.
For stellar-mass black holes, this radiation is incredibly weak and undetectable with current technology. But as black holes lose mass through this radiation, they should theoretically glow brighter, eventually exploding in a burst of energy when they reach the end of their lives.
Even more surprisingly, active black holes surrounded by superheated matter can be among the brightest objects in the universe. The material spiraling into them forms an accretion disk that can reach temperatures of millions of degrees, producing intense radiation across the electromagnetic spectrum.
The supermassive black hole at the center of galaxy M87—imaged for the first time in 2019—isn’t visible directly. What we see is the glowing gas around it, heated to extraordinary temperatures as it’s compressed and accelerated.
Far from being dark voids, many black holes are cosmic beacons, pouring out incredible amounts of energy as their gravity compresses and heats surrounding matter. The most active ones generate more light than entire galaxies of stars.
Black Holes Reveal Our Understanding Gaps
Our relationship with black holes perfectly illustrates how science evolves. What began as mathematical curiosities in Einstein’s equations have become observational realities that challenge and expand our understanding of physics.
The 2015 detection of gravitational waves from merging black holes by LIGO opened an entirely new window for studying these objects. The Event Horizon Telescope’s groundbreaking image of a black hole’s shadow in 2019 transformed these theoretical entities into observable phenomena.
With each new discovery, we realize that black holes aren’t just extreme objects in distant space—they’re fundamental to understanding the basic nature of reality itself.
“Black holes sit at the intersection of our two greatest physical theories: general relativity and quantum mechanics,” notes physicist Dr. Brian Greene. “Understanding them fully may require a complete reimagining of space, time, and matter.”
As we peer deeper into these cosmic enigmas, one thing becomes abundantly clear: the universe is stranger and more marvelous than even our most imaginative science fiction suggests.
