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Event horizon

In general relativity, an event horizon is a boundary in spacetime

beyond which events cannot affect an outside observer. In layman's

terms, it is defined as "the point of no return", i.e., the point at

which the gravitational pull becomes so great as to make escape

impossible. An event horizon is most commonly associated with black

holes. Light emitted from beyond the event horizon can never reach

the outside observer. Likewise, any object approaching the horizon

from the observer's side appears to slow down and never quite pass

through the horizon, with its image becoming more and more

redshifted as time elapses. The traveling object, however,

experiences no strange effects and does, in fact, pass through the

horizon in a finite amount of proper time.

More specific types of horizon include the related but distinct

absolute and apparent horizons found around a black hole. Still

other distinct notions include the Cauchy and Killing horizon; the

photon spheres and ergospheres of the Kerr solution; particle and

cosmological horizons relevant to cosmology; and isolated and

dynamical horizons important in current black hole research.

Event horizon of a black hole

One of the best-known examples of an event horizon derives from

general relativity's description of a black hole, a celestial object

so massive that no nearby matter or radiation can escape its

gravitational field. Often, this is described as the boundary within

which the black hole's escape velocity is greater than the speed of

light. However, a more accurate description is that within this

horizon, all lightlike paths (paths that light could take) and hence

all paths in the forward light cones of particles within the

horizon, are warped so as to fall farther into the hole. Once a

particle is inside the horizon, moving into the hole is as

inevitable as moving forward in time, and can actually be thought of

as equivalent to doing so, depending on the spacetime coordinate

system used.

The surface at the Schwarzschild radius acts as an event horizon in

a non-rotating body that fits inside this radius (although a

rotating black hole operates slightly differently). The

Schwarzschild radius of an object is proportional to its

mass. Theoretically, any amount of matter will become a black hole

if compressed into a space that fits within its corresponding

Schwarzschild radius. For the mass of the Sun this radius is

approximately 3 kilometers and for the Earth it is about 9

millimeters. In practice, however, neither the Earth nor the Sun has

the necessary mass and therefore the necessary gravitational force,

to overcome electron and neutron degeneracy pressure. The minimal

mass required for a star to be able to collapse beyond these

pressures is the Tolman-Oppenheimer-Volkoff limit, which is

approximately three solar masses.

Black hole event horizons are widely misunderstood. Common, although

erroneous, is the notion that black holes “vacuum up” material in

their neighborhood, where in fact they are no more capable of

“seeking out” material to consume than any other gravitational

attractor. As with any mass in the universe, matter must come within

its gravitational scope for the possibility to exist of capture or

consolidation with any other mass. Equally common is the idea that

matter can be observed “falling into” a black hole. This is not

possible. Astronomers can only detect accretion disks around black

holes, where material moves with such speed that friction creates

high-energy radiation which can be detected. (Similarly, some matter

from these accretion disks is forced out along the axes of spin of

the black hole, creating visible jets when these streams interact

with matter such as interstellar gas or when they happen to be aimed

directly at earth.) Further, relativity dictates that anything

approaching an event horizon will, from the point of view of an

observer, never actually cross the horizon, but will approach ever

more slowly, gaining mass as it does so and, correspondingly, any

light it emits will be further and further redshifted.

Wikipedia