Black Holes
Since their theoretical existence was first proposed in 1783 by English geologist John Michell, black holes have remained one of astronomy's greatest mysteries. In his paper to the Royal Society of England, Michell explained that a star approximately 500 times greater in diameter than our sun and of the same density would have an escape velocity (the speed at which an object must travel in order to break free from a body's gravitational field) greater than the speed of light, thus effectively making the body invisible. Although Michell did not believe the existence of such a body was likely, he did consider the possibility that black holes could physically exist somewhere in the universe. Most scientist's believed black holes could not be formed in nature until 1939, when Robert J. Oppenheimer explained how a star could become so massive that it might collapse under it's own mass. It was now believed that black holes could, and more than likely were, formed in nature......

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Title: Black Holes
Approximate Word Count: 712
Approximate Pages: 3 (250 words per double-spaced page)

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