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Take a mind-bending journey through the mysteries of the universe as we delve into the impossibilities of falling into black holes. Then, dive into a groundbreaking discovery - scientists' astonishing revelation of black holes on Earth and their precise locations. Uncover the mind-blowing science behind these cosmic wonders and the awe-inspiring existence of black holes, both extraterrestrial and right under our feet. Prepare to expand your understanding of the universe and the hidden secrets it holds.
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00:00You might think, falling into a black hole is as easy as falling into a giant pit, but boy is
00:06it a whole different ballgame!
00:08To actually fall into a black hole, you would need some incredible luck and a dash of wizardry.
00:15Moreover, if you were watching something fall into a black hole, you wouldn't even see it.
00:20Why? Well, let's try to understand the magic of physics.
00:24Falling into a black hole is really, really tricky.
00:28First of all, to even have a chance of doing this, you would need to aim perfectly and start your
00:34journey from very far away.
00:36It's like trying to hit a tiny target from a long distance.
00:40That's because black holes exist within galaxies, which are filled with other objects like stars, planets, and gas clouds.
00:48These objects have their own gravitational forces that can influence the path you need to take.
00:55It's like you have to carefully navigate through the room, avoiding bumping into others or getting pulled off course by
01:01their movements.
01:02In a similar way, when falling into a black hole, you need to navigate through the influences of other celestial
01:09objects.
01:11As you get closer, things get even more complicated.
01:16Making even the tiniest change in direction would require a tremendous amount of energy that you wouldn't be able to
01:22generate.
01:23It's like trying to steer a spaceship with no fuel left.
01:26This is because the black hole's gravitational pull is immensely strong.
01:31Once you pass the point called the event horizon, there's no coming back.
01:35You wouldn't be able to control anything.
01:38Now, even if you somehow manage to get on the right path and avoid all the obstacles, there's still a
01:45dangerous situation waiting for you.
01:47The intense heat and energy around the black hole, called plasma, would fry you as you get closer.
01:53So, you would need some impossibly strong protection to get even close to it.
01:59But not only is it nearly impossible to fall into a black hole, it's also impossible to see someone falling
02:06in it.
02:07Why? Let's find out.
02:09Imagine you're standing far away from a black hole, watching something getting closer and closer to the event horizon.
02:15As this thing, let's say it's a spaceship, falls into the black hole, two very strange things start happening.
02:24First, the color of the spaceship will change.
02:27You see, the gravity near a black hole is incredibly strong.
02:30Much stronger than anything we experience here on Earth.
02:34This intense gravity affects everything around it, including light.
02:39Now, light has this fascinating property, where it carries energy.
02:43But when light gets close to a black hole, the powerful gravitational pull starts sapping away its energy.
02:50Kind of like stealing it, making light weaker.
02:54And you know how when you look at a beautiful sunset, the sun appears to be this warm, reddish-orange
03:00color?
03:00Well, that's because when sunlight travels through our atmosphere, it scatters and loses some of its higher-energy bluish colors,
03:08leaving behind the redder ones.
03:10So, when light loses energy, it tends to shift towards the red end of the color spectrum.
03:17The same thing happens near a black hole.
03:20The light from the spaceship loses energy due to the black hole's strong gravity.
03:25So, the spaceship, which initially had its own color, starts looking redder and redder as it gets closer to the
03:32black hole.
03:32It's as if the black hole is casting its magical spell, changing the color of the spaceship itself.
03:39The second weird thing is related to time.
03:43According to a theory of general relativity, gravity can mess around with time itself.
03:49And it works in a very strange way, because none of you, not you, not people on board a spaceship,
03:55will feel this change.
03:57For you, an observer in this scenario, time is flowing just like it always does.
04:01You're just sitting there, sipping your space lemonade and watching the spaceship's journey.
04:06For people on a spaceship, things are the same.
04:09Their watch ticks away at a regular pace, and they go about their day as usual.
04:15But, objectively, for you, it would be like watching a spaceship fall in slow motion.
04:21It will seem to you that it's been falling into a black hole for weeks or even years.
04:26You might turn 80 and the spaceship is still out there.
04:30Crazy, right?
04:31Now, if time slows down for the spaceship, it means the light it emits also slows down.
04:37So, imagine someone on that spaceship flicking a flashlight on and off.
04:42But, because time is moving so slowly, the light coming from the flashlight also moves in slow motion.
04:48It takes ages for each burst of light to reach your eyes.
04:52You'll be watching a spaceship as if you're watching a video in super slow motion.
04:58And when light takes longer to reach your eyes, it becomes weaker and dimmer, just like a fading star.
05:04So, as the spaceship gets closer and closer to the black hole's event horizon, not only does it start looking
05:10redder, but it also appears dimmer.
05:31As you get closer to the black hole, something really weird starts happening.
05:41The gravity near the black hole is so powerful that it stretches and warps everything around it.
05:47So, the difference in gravitational pull between your head and feet becomes significant.
05:53This difference creates a tidal force, which stretches your body like a long, thin shape.
05:59It's a process that's scientifically called spaghettification.
06:03Essentially, you would be stretched into a human noodle.
06:06Being turned into spaghetti might sound fun for a pasta lover, but it's definitely not so great for an astronaut.
06:13Meanwhile, colors around you begin to warp and distort, creating a dazzling light show.
06:19It's like riding a roller coaster through a rainbow tunnel.
06:23Twists and turns, flashes and sparks.
06:25It's an exhilarating, mind-bending experience.
06:29And then, what happens to you depends on the type of black hole.
06:33First, we have classical black holes.
06:35These are black holes that exist forever.
06:38If you fall into this black hole, it would take an incredibly long time to reach the center.
06:44The center would keep getting closer and closer, but you would need an almost infinite amount of time to reach
06:50it.
06:50So, it would feel like your journey would never end.
06:55And then, we have evaporating black holes.
06:58These black holes can evaporate over time, due to a process called hawking radiation.
07:04It's just like the ice cubes melting away.
07:06These black holes have a limited lifespan, and it's basically impossible to fall into one of them.
07:13As you approach the evaporating black hole, you find yourself hovering near its edge, the event horizon.
07:19It's like being stuck at the entrance of a super cool amusement park.
07:24But guess what?
07:25This amusement park is shrinking.
07:27The black hole is evaporating, and as it does, the event horizon gets smaller and smaller.
07:34So, you stay right at the edge, tracking its every move.
07:37But you will forever stay in this event horizon without ever crossing it.
07:42But remember, once you pass the point of no return, there's no way back.
07:47You're on a one-way ticket to the mysterious heart of the black hole, the singularity.
07:53At the singularity, everything goes bonkers.
07:57Our current understanding of physics goes haywire, so it's a bit like entering a magic show.
08:03What happens once you reach the singularity?
08:06Is there anything on the other side of a black hole?
08:09We have no idea.
08:10It's a big mystery for us.
08:12But maybe we'll figure this out someday.
08:15So, my friend, it's best to admire black holes from a safe distance and let your imagination soar with the
08:21incredible wonders they hold.
08:23But just remember to keep your pasta on your plate and not near these cosmic spaghetti makers.
08:30Let me take you to a place that seems to be out of this world.
08:33Life inside this cave has been isolated from the outside world for about 5.5 million years.
08:38And it does show.
08:40See for yourself.
08:42Due to such a long isolation, the conditions inside the Movil cave are like nowhere else on our planet.
08:47A unique ecosystem is flourishing there.
08:49Even though there is a severe lack of sunlight inside the cave and the air is toxic.
08:54The cave, located a few miles west of the Black Sea in Romania, was first discovered in 1986.
09:01Nowadays, you can only visit it if you have special permission.
09:05Plus, the central caverns are guarded naturally by narrow limestone tunnels and vertical shafts.
09:12So, if you're no stranger to claustrophobia, you'd probably better not enter this place.
09:17In the depth of the cave, the air has twice less oxygen than the air outside.
09:22Instead, it contains a lot of carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide.
09:27So, not the freshest air you can breathe.
09:29It's also pitch black inside the cavern.
09:32But despite, or should I say thanks to, this cocktail of extremely harsh conditions,
09:37the site is a true goldmine for biologists.
09:41Shockingly, life seems to be booming here.
09:43In a 1996 study, scientists identified 48 species, and 33 of them were unique to the cave.
09:51Most of the creatures inhabiting the cave are tiny, with long limbs and antennae that help them navigate in the
09:56dark.
09:57They have no vision and lack pigment, and it makes sense.
10:01Why would you need to be able to see if you live in total darkness?
10:04And why would you need to be pretty and colorful with no one to see you?
10:08Now, I'm going to take you to another cave.
10:11It's no less amazing, but looks very different.
10:14This is the giant crystal cave, a.k.a. the Cave of the Crystals, in Mexico.
10:20These ginormous crystals were found in 2000 by a mining company after the water was pumped out of the cave.
10:28Two miners then saw the crystals after entering the drying cave on foot.
10:32These awe-inspiring crystals are actually massive gypsum pillars, hidden 984 feet underground.
10:38They're anchored to the walls and the floor of the scorching hot cave.
10:42Scientists estimate that the crystals could have been already growing for half a million years.
10:47That's why many of them are so long and wide that you can walk across them.
10:52Unfortunately, visiting this wonder of nature is impossible at the moment.
10:55But maybe it's for the better, since the giant crystal cave is a dangerous place that can easily turn into
11:01a trap.
11:02For tens of thousands of years, it was filled with groundwater,
11:05which was originally pushed upward into the opening by a magma chamber located in the depths of our planet.
11:11The magma under the cave kept the water hot,
11:13but eventually the temperature of the water dipped below 136 degrees Fahrenheit.
11:19As a result, the water started to fill with calcium and sulfate,
11:23whose particles began to recombine into gypsum.
11:27And then, white-tinted crystals took over the cave.
11:30And since they stayed underwater, they were able to keep growing.
11:36You don't have to fly to space to take a closer look at a black hole.
11:40Scientists have found something very similar to black holes in the southern Atlantic Ocean.
11:44A black hole has such an enormous gravitational pull that once something gets pulled inside,
11:50it doesn't have any chance to escape.
11:51Even light can't get out of a black hole.
11:54But ocean black holes seem to be almost as powerful as their space relatives.
11:59But instead of catching the light, they do the same with water.
12:03Ocean eddies are massive whirlpools that spin against the main current.
12:07They usually swirl billions of tons of water, and most of them are larger than a city.
12:11These whirlpools are so powerful that nothing trapped by them can escape.
12:15But the scariest thing is that you might not even notice heading into one of them.
12:20These things are so huge that you won't spot their boundaries until it's too late.
12:25When scientists started exploring ocean vortices, with the help of satellites,
12:29they discovered the borders of several eddies.
12:32After that, they managed to prove that, mathematically,
12:36these whirlpools are the same as mysterious black holes in space.
12:40Massive eddies are surrounded by supertight barriers where fluid moves in closed loops.
12:44Even water can't get out from the inside of these loops.
12:48That's why tight ocean vortices play the role of enormous containers.
12:52Water inside them can be totally different from the ocean surrounding an eddy.
12:56And I'm not only talking about its temperature.
12:59The salt content inside and outside a whirlpool often differs as well.
13:05On the thin Curonian spit splitting the Baltic Sea from the Curonian Lagoon,
13:09there is one of the most bizarre places on Earth.
13:12Locals call this area the Dancing Forest because pine trees in this forest have shockingly unusual shapes.
13:19They twist in spirals and circles along the ground.
13:23There are some theories why it could be happening, of course.
13:27Some people claim that huge amounts of positive and negative energies once clashed in that spot.
13:33More down-to-earth individuals believe that the reason is geological.
13:37Sandy soil in the area is too unstable to hold trees growing upright.
13:41The most popular is the idea that strong winds blowing from the water influence the shape of the trees.
13:47In any case, experts haven't come to the final conclusion yet.
13:52Look at these underwater crop circles.
13:55For the first time, they were spotted in 1995, close to southern Japan's coast.
14:01Local divers called these seven-feet-wide structures mystery circles.
14:04The enigma had been plaguing many minds for almost 16 years until the culprit was finally caught.
14:10Imagine the researchers' surprise when it turned out to be a male pufferfish.
14:14The fish needs a bit more than a week to build one circle, and the aesthetics are obviously crucial.
14:20A male is swimming inside the circle, digging valleys in the sand with its fins.
14:25But that's not all.
14:26The fish also use shells and corals to decorate particular parts of their circles.
14:31This whole build-a-circle thing has a practical purpose as well.
14:35The way a male fish swims pushes the sand toward the center of the circle and creates a mound which
14:41later serves as a nest.
14:44The next mystery on our list is in the Caribbean.
14:47Just off the coast of Belize, there's a giant sinkhole.
14:50That's the Great Blue Hole.
14:52It's about 1,000 feet across and more than 400 feet deep.
14:55Once, a long, long time ago, this hole was a cave.
14:59But then rising waters filled it, making it collapse in on itself.
15:03The deeper you'll descend into the Great Hole's crystalline waters, the darker it will become.
15:08You'll see tons of stalactite-filled caves there, but entering them is extremely dangerous.
15:14Unless you want to get hopelessly lost.
15:17Once you reach a depth of 50 feet, you'll notice that the water is shimmering.
15:21That's the invisible line dividing the sinkhole's salty top from the freshwater abyss.
15:26You might want to turn back right now.
15:28Who knows what you might come across in the murky depths.
15:32There was an old Amazonian legend that told about the river that was so hot that it boiled.
15:37And it was believed to be just a legend until Peruvian geoscientist Andres Ruzo questioned if the river could be
15:43real.
15:44All experts denied such a possibility.
15:46After all, hot rivers do exist, but only in the areas where there are volcanoes.
15:51As for the part of the country mentioned in the legend, there are no volcanoes in that region.
15:56But Andres Ruzo was too dedicated to give up.
15:59And in 2011, he finally located the river from the legends.
16:03The water in it was indeed steaming hot.
16:06Its temperature was 186 degrees Fahrenheit.
16:09Not boiling, but pretty close to this point.
16:11But what shocked the researcher the most was the size of the river.
16:15One could think that the almost boiling water was the result of the activity of an underwater hot spring.
16:20The thermal pools are always small, while the river is 20 feet deep and flows for almost 4 miles.
16:26This is the only river of its kind on our planet.
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