A black hole is a region of space-time with such extreme gravity that nothing, not even light, can escape from inside a black hole once past the event horizon. Einstein's theory of general relativity predicts that a sufficiently compact mass can warp space-time to form a black hole. Mass is not the only thing that can be used to create a black hole. Because of the equivalence of mass and energy enough electromagnetic radiation, such as light, concentrated enough into a small enough region of space can create a theoretical self-trapping type of black hole known as a Kugelblitz.

Black hole formation is expected when massive stars collapse at the end of their life cycle. After a black hole has formed it can absorb mass from its surroundings to grow. By absorbing interstellar material, stars and merging with other black holes, supermassive black holes of millions of solar masses can form. It is believed that supermassive black holes exist in the centers of most galaxies including the Milky Way galaxy.

Photo Source: nasa.gov

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