Spaghettification

In astrophysics, spaghettification (sometimes referred to as the noodle effect) is the pulling of multiple objects into long thin (spaghetti-like) formations in a gravitational field. It is caused by tidal forces.

Stephen Hawking described the flight of a fictional astronaut who was passing within a black hole's event horizon. The astronaut he describes is "stretched like spaghetti" by the difference in gravitational force, or the gradient, from head to toe. The reason this happens is that the gravity force exerted by the singularity would be much stronger at one end of the body than the other. If one were to fall into a black hole feet first, the gravity at their feet would be much stronger than at their head, causing the person to be vertically pulled. Along with that, the right side of the body will be pulled to the left, and the left side of the body will be pulled to the right, pushing the sides of the person inward. Spaghettification of a star was seen for the first time in 2018 by scientists observing a pair of colliding galaxies approximately 150 million light-years from Earth.

References

↑ Wheeler, J. Craig (2007), Cosmic catastrophes: exploding stars, black holes, and mapping the universe (2nd ed.), Cambridge University Press, p. 182, ISBN 978-0-521-85714-7
↑ Hawking, Stephen (1988). A Brief History of Time. Bantam Dell Publishing Group. p. 256. ISBN 978-0-553-10953-5.
↑ Astronomy. OpenStax. 2016. pp. 862. ISBN 978-1938168284.
↑ "Astronomers See Distant Eruption as Black Hole Destroys Star" (Press release). National Radio Astronomy Observatory. Phys.org. 2018-06-14. Retrieved 2018-06-15.

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[1] Wheeler, J. Craig (2007), Cosmic catastrophes: exploding stars, black holes, and mapping the universe (2nd ed.), Cambridge University Press, p. 182, ISBN 978-0-521-85714-7

[2] Hawking, Stephen (1988). A Brief History of Time. Bantam Dell Publishing Group. p. 256. ISBN 978-0-553-10953-5.

[3] Astronomy. OpenStax. 2016. pp. 862. ISBN 978-1938168284.

[4] "Astronomers See Distant Eruption as Black Hole Destroys Star" (Press release). National Radio Astronomy Observatory. Phys.org. 2018-06-14. Retrieved 2018-06-15.