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Good question!
Its nice to see people interested in space at your age.
The first thing to understand is that light is trapped at the swarzchilds radius. At this radius, or as it approaches this radius, light becomes trapped. If light were to hover close to the event horizon, light would bend, travelling in an arc formation. This has already been proven, as Einstein predicted with certainty the arc radius light bends around the sun. Since this happens, this does not mean that the gravitational force of the sun captures light.
Now if light approaches the event horizon of the black hole then light will be captured. Think of the event horizon as the surface of the black hole. Similar to the surface you stand on right now on earth. If we shot a beam of photons (light) straight up, the gravitational force of the black hole will pull the photons back to the surface. Hence the photons do not have a sufficient escape velocity, that greater than the speed of light. Since a speed does not exist as such, then light is gravitationaly captured. Similarly if you throw a ball up in the air on earth, it will never pass the earths atmosphere. The speed at which you threw it, is not greater than the escape velocity.
Normally light is captured around a black hole close to 3 gravitational radi. I am not sure if your familiar with this concept or if you have already read it. If not I can explain it to you in more detail. So if light were to come close to the black hole (i.e. 3 gravitational radi) then the light will circle the black hole forever, until something causes it to approach a radi less then 3, in where it is sucked into the hole. If light passes higher than 3 radi, then light will circle a few times and fling out. Any greater pass, will cause light to bend, which is usually in the form of an elipse!
So now you see that light is captured at a critical distance from the black hole. The bending of light that is seen, is caused by the warpage of space the black hole creates. A black hole has a mass of 100 times or more then the sun!
Let me know if this makes sense, or if you need more info! |
