Scientific Bestiary: the Black Hole

A bestiary is an illustrated mediaeval book combining factual observations of animals with legends. This scientific bestiary is an illustrated series which focuses on the factual observations, but has fun with it. The written style is an intentional parody and as such, is not what you are used to reading in a scientific context.

A Black Hole is a mysterious Creature, & there is much we do not know about it. Though it was considered by Einstein to be a monstrous Creature, & its existence in nature was long doubted due to its characteristics, which by nature hide it from observation. The Black Hole is not a hole in space, but is named as such due to these characteristics.

A Black Hole is formed for the most part by the death of a large star, or from the collapse of gas clouds early in our Universe’s lifespan. They may be from 3 times to billions of times the mass of our own Sun. No Light nor Matter may escape the Boundary, or Event Horizon, of the Black Hole. For the Gravity within is so strong that even Light, the speediest Creature known to us, cannot travel fast enough to escape it.

This terrible Beast may prey and feed upon matter such as neighbouring Stars, or even its smaller brethren, and thus grow larger. In our own galaxy, there may be more than 100 million Black Holes, but these gluttonous Beasts are by their nature hard to find.