nothing can escape a black hole ?

[tali122]

it is said that nothing can escape a black hole and everything is sucked in - but far does an object have to be and get sucked in?

[Clanad]

Gravity and some classes of x-rays do escape black holes.  The size of black holes,(not yet observed, by the way) is measured relative to our own sun or solar mass... Anything approaching a black hole first enters the accretion disk, which is the only thing we actually see representing a black hole, generally due the heating of the gas and dust within... If you are more than twice the diameter of the black hole away from it, the black hole acts just like any other mass and will only affect you if you happen to dive directly for it.  Inside the accretion disk one approaches the event horizon, from which nothing, not even light, escapes due to the near infinite gravity and within which all the really wierd stuff happens, in theory.... simply put... much to simply put... but good for an overview...

[Peter Pedant]

hawking got a gold star for showing that something came out of the top - hawking radiation in fact.

I think we need a blackhole theorist for these questions. You never know one may be reading......

[Thunderchild]

there is a theory that everything will end up in black holes and that all the black holes will atract one another making again the big bang as for as everything is compacted together it will rexplode into the next (of god knows and he should many big bangs) and we all start again. fortunately the human race will have destroyed it'self by then

[MargeB]

I think Hawking recently changed his mind on that, now stating that over time information will leak out of the black hole.

[stevie21]

Did he say that it was antiparticles that looked to be escaping? One part pops into the black hole and the anti-particle skives off?