Again, this is not to say that the gravitational pull isn’t strong, just that the gradient isn’t too extreme. Black holes of different masses will have different gradients, so with supermassive black holes it is perfectly possible to pass the event horizon with no ill-effect. But in extreme situations the tidal forces will pull you apart, a process known as spaghettification. You’re beginning to stretch, resisting that stretch by the strength of the material making up your spacecraft. The gravitational gradient as you get closer to the black hole is increasingly steep, so the difference between the gravitational pull on the parts of the spacecraft nearer the black hole and those further away grows. The space station is literally receiving different wavelengths than you’re transmitting, but while I’m busy retuning the receivers, you’re becoming ever more worried about the tidal forces acting on the spaceship. Realistically, what can I do?Īs you get closer to the black hole, the signals you’re sending are undergoing increased gravitational redshift as the photons climb out of the gravitational well.
It’s probably time to start signalling for help, so you send a radio signal to the distant space station from where I’m observing things as best I can. You haven’t even reached the weird stuff – this is fairly conventional mechanics – though already you might realise you’re in trouble. Because the disc is flat, moving around what you’re going to think of as the equator of the black hole, you might try to get yourself ‘above’ or ‘below’ the disc, but you’ll be pulled back into alignment.
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