Black Holes

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Across
  1. 5. time dilation: An Einsteinian phenomenon where clocks tick slower for observers closer to a heavy mass.
  2. 7. curvature gradient: The rate at which the warping of the cosmic fabric intensifies as one approaches a massive object.
  3. 11. Jets: Beams of high-energy plasma blasted outward from a black hole near light-speed (variation of relativistic jets).
  4. 12. radius: The size definition for a non-rotating black hole's boundary (alternate spelling of term #8).
  5. 14. acceleration: The rapid increase in speed as an orbiting object reaches its closest approach to a star.
  6. 16. disk: A swirling, friction-heated ring of matter spiraling into a cosmic sinkhole (variation of accretion disk).
  7. 17. decline: The drop-off in orbital speed observed at greater distances from a central mass.
  8. 19. The universal force of attraction acting between all matter.
  9. 22. gradient: The rate at which speed changes across a given distance or between layers of fluid.
  10. 23. Horizon: The cosmic boundary around a black hole from which nothing, not even light, can escape.
  11. 25. velocity: A speed so high—nearing the speed of light—that Einstein's rules of relativity become heavily noticeable.
  12. 27. Stable Circular Orbit: The closest circular path matter can safely take around a black hole without inevitably plunging in.
  13. 29. Black Hole: A system consisting of two dense gravitational sinks locked in an orbital dance until they eventually merge.
  14. 30. A term describing the largest class of black holes, harboring millions or billions of solar masses.
Down
  1. 1. The vertical stretching and horizontal compression an object undergoes when falling into an extreme gravitational field.
  2. 2. radius: The distance from a non-spinning black hole's singularity to its event horizon.
  3. 3. The region outside a rotating black hole's horizon where space itself is dragged along by the spin.
  4. 4. precession: The slow, cosmic rotation of an entire elliptical orbit's axis over time.
  5. 6. law: Physical principle stating that a force drops off in intensity as the square of the distance increases.
  6. 8. disruption radius: The danger zone boundary within which a star will be violently torn apart by a black hole's tidal forces.
  7. 9. velocity: The speed at which an object travels when it is in very close quarters with a celestial body.
  8. 10. radiation: Theoretical thermal energy emitted at a black hole's edge, causing it to very slowly evaporate over time.
  9. 13. trajectory: The extreme, high-speed path traced by a star orbiting the Milky Way's central supermassive black hole.
  10. 15. deceleration: The slow-down of an object as it reaches its farthest point from its host star.
  11. 18. Horizon telescope: A globe-spanning network of radio dishes used to capture the first direct images of a black hole's shadow.
  12. 20. dilation: The slowing down of time's passage caused either by immense speed or intense gravitational fields.
  13. 21. radius: The average distance from an orbiting body to the center of the object it revolves around.
  14. 24. Mass: A unit of mass equal to that of our Sun, or a class of black hole formed by the collapse of a single massive star.
  15. 26. The infinitely dense point of infinite gravity hidden at the dead center of a black hole.
  16. 28. The constellation hosting Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy.