Black Holes as a singularity

Black Holes as a singularity pg. 32 (Justin L: March 28th, 2008)
In the Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Christopher Boone constantly exclaims how he loves science. He is especially intrigued with black holes because he thinks he knows what they are but in reality, nobody does. It is believed that a black hole occurs towards the end of an enormous star’s life after it performs a supernova. Following the explosion, the core of the star (where the gravitational pull occurs) forms the exceptionally dense black hole. Since it has such a large mass, the force of gravity exerted is greater then anything known to man. Light cannot even escape the gravity, which explains why no human being can see a black hole. But we can record it when it does occur because stars that orbit it emit certain gases once it enters the funnel of the black hole. The gases that are released are heated up due to the friction, and release new energy in forms of x-rays. Our satellites in space can pick up these x-rays which makes it possible for humans to detect black holes, but not physically see them. The first recorded black hole, according to NASA, was the binary star Cygnus X-1 in 1971. The object discovered couldn’t have been a normal neutron star because its mass was too great. According to Christopher, a black hole is also a singularity meaning “it is impossible to find out what is on the other side…” (pg. 32) I believe Christopher is so fascinated by this topic because it challenges him to think even though there is no definite answer yet.