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Has a planet or star gone into a black hole?
Question Date: 2003-12-05
Answer 1:

There is indirect evidence that a great many stars and planets have been swallowed by black holes. Astronomers believe that there are enormous black holes (millions of times heavier than the sun) at the centers of many galaxies, and smaller black holes scattered about within galaxies. However no one has ever directly seen a black hole swallow a star. In fact, no one has ever directly seen a black hole! So far they have only be "seen" by the effect of their gravity on nearby stars and gas clouds.


Answer 2:

To this date we have never observed to the satisfaction of absolutely every astronomer that black holes exist, although those who think that black holes do not exist are a fringe group. We think that black holes sometimes form by the collapse of super massive stars in a hypernova (basically a supernova on steroids) . Black holes almost certainly exist, and we have observed their gravitational effects on other objects (that is the only way to observe them), but we have never managed to take a photograph of a black hole showing us the event horizon itself.



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