Spaghettification Wikipedia Article Summary

Article Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaghettification#:~:text=In%20astrophysics%2C%20spaghettification%20

Spaghettification is defined as “…the vertical stretching and horizontal compression of objects into long thin shapes…” which is caused by extreme tidal force from a black hole. When an object ventures to close to a black  hole, the tidal forces have a greater pull on the material that is the closest to it, creating that spaghetti like stretch. This effect is illustrated below.  Gif found on WikipediaThis is because the tidal forces apply a stronger gravitational force on the object that is the closest to the singularity. Because of this, if these objects were to fall into a small black hole they would be crushed before they reach the event horizon. However, this is not the same for a supermassive black hole. The singularity in a supermassive black hole lies much further behind the event horizon which would allow objects to pass through the it before being spaghettified. This has to do with where the tensile force exuded on an object is the greatest. The tensile force created by supermassive black hole is going to be the largest within the event horizon whereas the tensile force from a much smaller black hole is strongest outside of the event horizon causing anything being sucked in to be spaghettified before it reaches the ‘surface.’

Tensile force found through integration of the tidal force: F = μ l m/4r^3

μ-the standard gravitational parameter of the black hole

l- length of the object

m- the objects mass

r- the distance to the black hole

 

Author: bdh5364

My name is Blair Hecker and I am a junior Business Administration and Management major at Penn State. I am goal-oriented and passionate about the aerospace industry, I have research and leadership experience that spans my education career starting in middle school. I enjoy working together with all sorts of teams in order to achieve our objectives in a concise and timely manner.

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