NOVA : Black Hole Apocalypse

Black Hole with accretion disk

Credit: Courtesy of WGBH

They are the most enigmatic, mysterious, and exotic objects in the universe: black holes.

They’re also the most powerful; their gravity is so strong it can actually capture light. And they’re the most destructive, swallowing particles, dust, gas, planets, even giant stars. Anything that falls into them vanishes… gone forever. But now, astrophysicists are coming to realize that black holes just might be integral to the structure of the universe— and our very existence.

In NOVA : Black Hole Apocalypse, airing Wednesday, January 10, 2017 at 9 p.m. on WXXI-TV, astrophysicist and novelist Janna Levin will take viewers on a journey to the frontiers of black hole science. We will meet with the leading astronomers and physicists to discover the most cutting edge research that is helping to shed light on these shadowy monsters, and we will explore the provocative questions: Where do they come from? What’s inside them? What happens if you fall into one? And what can they tell us about the nature of space, time, and gravity?