A journey to the center of a black hole! The Universe can be an incredibly violent and extreme place. Nowhere is this seen more clearly than with the many exotic objects that can be found scattered throughout the Cosmos – from transient stellar explosions to consuming black holes. What is a black hole? A black hole is a compact/localized region of space surrounding a collapsed mass within which gravity is so powerful that neither matter nor radiation can escape – in other words, the escape velocity (see page 3) exceeds the speed of light. Formation of black holes A black hole is thought to be formed when a star with a certain mass undergoes total gravitational collapse. For a star with a mass greater than M, gravity crushes it so much that, in theory, its density becomes infinite and its volume is zero. This state of matter is called a “singularity” and is inaccessible to the laws of physics as we understand them, in other words it breaks the laws of physics. For a black hole to form the star's solar mass must be 3 times heavier than that of the Sun. The gravitational field surrounding a black hole is so high that no radiation (including light) can escape and as a result it appears black due of the absence of any observable emissions. (http://www.nasa.gov. What is a black hole? September 30, 2008)General Theory of RelativityThe General Theory of Relativity is the geometric theory of gravitation. This theory generalizes special relativity and Newton's law of universal gravitation, providing a unified description of gravity as a geometric property of space and time (spacetime). Spacetime is any mathematical model that combines space and time into a single continuum. Albert Einstein's research...... middle of paper ......k Holes. November 27, 2013 (website online) available at:This website helped me understand how X-ray sources are emitted due to the proximity of two black holes to each other.McEvoy, Jordan. Stephen Hawking – A graphic guide. UK: Icon Books Ltd, 1999 (magazine) available at:This book helped me cover the area of ​​Hawking radiation, a very difficult subject to understand.Smolin, Lee. Three roads to quantum gravity. Great Britain: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2000 (journal) available at:This journal provided me with all the citations used in my report.Ridpath, Ian. Dictionary of astronomy. Great Britain: George Phillip Ltd, 1995 (magazine) available at:This magazine provided me with all the definitions used in my report.