One of the strangest predictions of general relativity is that if a large body collapses under its own gravity, nothing can stop it becoming a black hole, a region of space with gravity so strong that even light can’t escape. Astronomers have discovered that nearly every super-massive galaxy, including our own, has a black hole at its center.
Current physics has no force to stop this collapse, so a black hole is considered to be a point of infinite mass density, called a singularity, surrounded by an event horizon that is the region where light can’t escape its gravity (Figure 5.11). This is based on the equations but in most sciences, an equation that gives an infinity is an error not a fact.
Processing models can’t have infinities because they can’t be computed, so this model doesn’t let matter become infinitely dense because space can’t become infinitely small. Our space, like a screen, has a pixel limit, and each pixel has a finite bandwidth, so a black hole is a region of space at maximum capacity that can take no more, not a singularity. Just as the finite refresh rate of network points limit the speed of light, their finite bandwidth limits the density of mass in a black hole. What stops the collapse of a black hole then isn’t a force, but the ability of space itself to support matter.
Black holes then expand as they acquire matter because more space is needed to handle it. A black hole’s Schwarzschild radius is linearly proportional to its mass, but if that mass was at a point, shouldn’t its radius effect decrease as an inverse square like gravity?
A black hole is a volume of space at maximum capacity not a singularity of infinite density. Instead of radiating light, it absorbs it, so black holes are in effect dark stars that take in energy (Barcelo et al., 2009). Sagittarius A*, the center of our galaxy, then isn’t a hole at all, but a super-massive dark star with a halo of light, whose dark matter keeps its stars together. We come from matter, and so see dark matter as destructive, but for the galaxy, it is beneficial.