“How many black holes are there in the universe?” Bobby asked in a high pitched tone.

“Well, we aren’t able to get an accurate count on that due to a few reasons. One, the intermediate mass black holes I have just mentioned, we haven’t actually found any. So if they did exist, that would skew our calculations. Two, the observable universe is just so big that it would be near impossible to get an answer.” Mr. Terry sighed.

“Why is it called a black hole and not something like a...a...a space vacuum?” Bobby asked out of curiosity.

“Well, a black hole gets its name because it does not even allow light to escape. Therefore, we can’t see any physical characteristics of a black hole. This is called the No Hair Theorem and it just means that if a black hole were to have any discernable feature, it wouldn’t be called a black hole since it would let light escape and black holes are known to not let anything escape, not even light. We can, however, determine their mass, charge, and spin.”

“Surely, we would be able to see different angles of a black hole at different points in space should we not?” Sam asked.

“Excellent question Sam, your parents taught you well. Indeed, that is the case. Without going into too much detail, depending on which angle you are viewing the black hole from you could either see a radio loud/quiet galaxy, a blazar, or a Seyfert galaxy. It’s a rather complex topic that I’d rather not get into. That reminds me, one of the most fascinating aspects of a black hole is the jet! This is one mystery that I am personally very interested in.” Mr. Terry began getting visibly excited.

“Is that the bright thing that black holes spit out?” Sam said as she tried to recollect on what her parents told her.

“Correct, if a black hole just keeps on sucking in and compacting its surrounding material, then it will eventually start to get so hot around the area that it will actually spit out some matter in two jets that are pointing away from each other. There are two types that we know of, one that is a continuous stream of matter, and another that is not so continuous.”

“Oh yes, I remember now. My parents told me the first kind is akin to a flashlight while the second is like the black hole in a state of burping then stopping to rest then burping again.” Sam said with a smile of satisfaction evident on her face.

“Precisely, Sam. Your parents sure taught you well. Now it would be a disservice to talk about black holes without talking about the people first thought up the idea of this concept as well as the others who improved upon it. So, the first person who developed the idea of black holes was a fellow by the name of John Michell as well as his colleague, Pierre-Simon Laplace. They didn’t theorize of black holes specifically, but they did theorize an object that would have gravity so immensely compact that not even light would be able to get out of its gravitational pull. What they were thinking about was mainly a theory called dark stars.”

“That’s pretty cool too,” Bobby said in response.

“In no particular order, Jocelyn Bell, Isaac Newton, Vera Rubin, Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, and Albert Einstein were all contributors to our understanding of black holes. The Indian fellow Chandrasekhar discovered the mass limit for white dwarves which was found out to be 1.44 times the mass of our sun. Next up on our list is Jocelyn Bell, she discovered the first pulsars. Vera Rubin found evidence for dark stars. Albert Einstein discovered that mass and energy were interchangeable. Does anyone know what contributions that Isaac Newton discovered?” Mr. Terry asked hopeful that at least one of his students knew.

“Isn’t he that guy that found the law of gravity?” Sam asked trying to recollect the lessons that she had received from her parents.

“Exactly so Sam, well done.” Mr. Terry said.

“Wait, does that mean that there was no gravity?” Bobby asked rather curiously.

At this Mr. Terry had to take a moment to sit down and process what this child had just said. Once he was ready he got back up again and responded to Bobby. In the corner of his eye, he could see nearly everyone in the class and especially Sam giving him the look of pure confusion. Not because they were curious too, but rather just that he would even ask this question in the first place.

“No, Bobby. That’s not how this works. You see, everything around us, all the air that we breathe, every molecule in our being, can be explained by science, and if not then it will in time. All the forces in nature that propel the physical manifestations of our world is what we strive to explain. So to answer your question, we have almost always had gravity, so long as there was a large enough object. The nature of the world around us is likely to stay the same for the next million years or more.” Mr. Terry lectured.

“Is that so, do you think the universe will ever die?” Bobby said trying to shift the attention away from him like anyone would try to do.

“I firmly believe that the universe will one day die, it’s a whole mumbo jumbo of gravity and the big crunch and all that. However, this should not affect your life in any way. We should take this time to truly be grateful for the life that we have lived thus far. Nothing else matters as of this moment.” Mr. Terry replied.

“Ok,” Bobby said glad that no one was eyeing him anymore.

“That was a brilliant question Bobby. Now, as for our last topic, we will discuss perhaps the greatest mystery in the universe. What is inside a black hole and what secrets does the black hole singularity contain?” Mr. Terry smiled bitterly. On the one hand, this was the best part of the unsolved mystery of a black hole, but he also knew that their time was nearly up.

“Hmm? Why do you look so sad today Mr. Terry?” Ruby asked in worry.

“It’s nothing Ruby. Let’s continue on with the lesson. So, the singularity is a complete mystery to us. Some have even speculated that the whole reason for the existence of a black hole is to hide the singularity. Some say that the black hole is nothing more than one part of an intergalactic traveling method or something of the like. The other part is a sort of the opposite of a black hole in that it ejects matter instead of sucking it in.”

“Woah! How cool would that be if it was true? I really want that to be the case if we ever do find out what is inside a black hole.” Bobby said in admiration.

“Well, no one actually knows what happens, but even if they did find out. They would be dead quite possibly the very next moment. That concludes my lesson for today, how about we take a look at the space around us?” Mr. Terry said.

He went to the projector and flipped on a switch. This lead to everyone in the room being able to look around their spaceship, through cameras on the outside of the ship, and marvel at the wonders of the space. Then, he sat by his desk and admired their surroundings as well.

“Mr. Terry, what do you think the singularity will look like?” Ruby asked.

Mr. Terry looked at all the kids that were in his room with eyes of sadness and looked at his watch. It was about time that he predicted that they would meet their end, and with regret in his voice, he voiced a final “I had a wonderful time with you all but to answer your question, well, let’s find out, shall we? We just have to wait for a little while longer...”

The End.