Among the most fascinating objects in the cosmos, black holes are shrouded in mystery. Although it is not desirable to attempt such an experiment, one can wonder what would happen if one fell into a black hole…
Black holes are curiosities of the Universe that fascinate and are the subject of multiple fantasies. Never approached closely, but many times theorized by physics and mathematics, they are presented as real cosmic monsters sucking up everything in their path, from which even light cannot escape. If it seems impossible to escape from this type of object, what would it be like for a person to fall into a black hole?
If you imagined that you were to throw yourself feet first into a black hole, the force of attraction that would be applied to your feet would be much stronger than that which would be felt by your head. In other words, your feet would be sucked into the black hole much faster than the upper part of your body, located further from the center of the hole. Your body would then be stretched in length in the manner of spaghetti, as some astrophysicists have described. This phenomenon would be particularly true for the smallest black holes whose section is narrower than that of supermassive black holes. But before you turn into spaghetti, your body would be subjected to the extremely high temperature that reigns around the black hole. An unenviable end, even if it is a question of advancing science!
What would a spectator located at a distance from the black hole see when you fell into it? The physics of black holes is complex and while all their secrets have not yet been uncovered, scientists are able to predict some of their behavior. For example, a friend located at a good distance from the scene and who would witness your fall would not see you sinking quickly into the cosmic monster. On the contrary, the fall would seem infinitely slow to him….
Indeed, black holes have the particularity of deforming space-time around them. The light returned by your body would also be sucked into the black hole and would have more and more difficulty extracting itself to reach the eyes of a spectator. You would then appear to fall infinitely for the people who would witness the scene. Once past the limit where even light can no longer escape the black hole, your image would freeze for them, and they would not see the end of your fall.