The Life Cycle of Black Holes

In our everyday lives we virtually never come up against this limit, hence why it seems peculiar. In this experiment a laser is shone through a narrow slit onto a screen.

As the slit is made narrower, the spot on the screen also becomes narrower. But at a certain point, the spot starts becoming wider. This is because the photons of light have been so localised at the slit that their horizontal momentum must become less well defined in order to satisfy Heisenberg's uncertainty principle.

Scientists are beginning to suspect that these monsters have a powerful impact on galaxies, solar systems and space-time itself.

And now, researchers are finally getting a grip on these black holes with a new generation of high-tech laser systems and advanced telescopes in space.