Crack open a middle-school science textbook, and you might see a picture of an astronaut in a black hole: stretched out like a spaghetti noodle as the rapidly increasing gravity pulled different parts of their body at different speeds, then crushed by the same force. A growing scientific controversy, however, questions whether this view is accurate — and in doing so, it threatens parts of Einstein’s theory of gravity and the quantum field theory that underlies many of our assumptions about the world. The New York Times delves into the debate about the firewall paradox, a potential explanation for black hole behavior that continues to confuse and frustrate physicists. Of course, if you’re the astronaut, the result won’t be much better: you won’t be crushed, but you’ll burn up in a wall of energy.
If an astronaut fell into a black hole, would he stretch or burn?
is a senior tech and policy editor focused on online platforms and free expression. Adi has covered virtual and augmented reality, the history of computing, and more for The Verge since 2011.
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