singularity

What is a black hole, really? Event horizons, Hawking radiation, spaghettification, the nearest known black holes, and the first images of M87* and Sgr A*.

The event horizon is the point of no return — beyond it, not even light can escape. But what actually happens inside? The physics gets strange fast: time and space swap roles, the singularity may not be what we think, and quantum mechanics breaks everything.

Black holes aren't made of "stuff" in the normal sense — they're regions of spacetime where matter has been crushed past every known state. Here's what physics actually says is inside.