Black Holes What is a black hole? Well, it's difficult to answer this question, since the terms we normally use to describe a scientific phenomenon are inadequate here, Astronomers and scientists think that a black hole is a region of space (not a thing) into which matter has fallen and from which nothing can escape—not even light. So we can't see a black hole. A black hole exerts (施加) a strong gravitational (重力的) pull and yet it has no matter. It is only space—or so we think. How can this happen? The theory is that some stars explode when their density increases to a particular point they 'collapse' and sometimes a supernova (超新星) occurs. The collapse of a star may produce a 'White Dwarf (白矮星) 'or a 'neutron star'—a star whose matter is so dense that it continually shrinks by the force of its own gravity. But if the star is very large this process of shrinking may be so intense that a black hole results. Imagine the earth reduced to the size of a marble, but still having the same mass and a stronger gravitational pull, and you have some idea of the force of a black hole. Any matter near the black hole Is sucked in. It is impossible to say what happens Inside a black hole. Our space and time laws don't seem to apply to objects in the area of a black hole. Einstein's relativity theory is the only one that can explain such phenomena. Einstein claimed that matter and energy are interchangeable, so that there is no 'absolute' time and space, There are no constants at all, and measurements of time and space depend on the position of the observer— they are relative. Einstein's theory provided a basis for the idea of black holes before astronomers started to find some evidence for their existence. It is only recently that astronomers have begun specific research into black holes. The most convincing evidence of black holes comes from research into binary (由两部分组成的) star systems. In some binary star systems, astronomers have shown that there is an invisible companion star, a 'partner' to the one which we can see in the sky. There is one star, called by its catalogue number HDE 226868, which must have a Partner. This partner star, it seems, has a mass ten or twenty times greater than the sun—yet we can't see it. Matter from HDE 226868 is being dragged towards this companion star. Could this invisible star, which exerts such a great force, be a black hole? Astronomers have evidence of a few other stars too, which might have black holes as companions. Which of the following does NOT fit the definition of the black hole?