
Originally Posted by
jscwerve
I think the fundamental problem with people not being to understand, if even only in concept, of a black hole is in the naming of it. The science community really screwed the pooch by naming it that, should have been just a "singularity" or some other name. I think more people would be able to wrap their heads around the idea if it was simply named something else.
A black "hole" is not a hole at all. It is a very large (millions to billions of solar masses) object. The mass is so large that it has enough gravity for light not to escape. and the mass is extremely compressed. For example, if the mass if the earth were to become the same density as a black hole, it would be about the size of a marble. Same mass, different density.