Part 11/14:
The main difference? The black hole’s compactness allows objects to get much closer to its event horizon—the point beyond which nothing escapes—without being pulled in immediately. But the black hole isn’t a vacuum cleaner; it’s a gravitational well, just like any massive body, only more concentrated.
In the universe, black holes are slowly evaporating via Hawking radiation over trillions of years, and cosmic expansion is pushing black holes farther apart. They’re not a danger to the universe at large but fascinating regions where gravity becomes extreme.
Key insight: Black holes don’t have an irresistible sucking power. They are just another form of massive, extremely dense objects obeying the same physical laws.