Black Holes and Star Trek

A black hole is the remains of a star, after it has gone supernova (big explosion, don't be near it). After an extremely large, expanding explosion occurs, the anomaly begins to shrink smaller and smaller, while growing in gravimetric pull and size. What remains is essentially a large "hole in space" that has such a strong gravitational pull that light itself cannot escape it. Anything that happens to pass too close to a black hole is hopelessly pulled in and presumably destroyed, adding its mass to the black hole's.

It is generally thought in scientific circles that there are black holes at the center of most galaxies, including the Milky Way. Black Holes may also possess odd variations in the normal physical laws of the universe, and may be the key to faster-than-light speeds, as well as time travel. Since light can be altered by a Black Hole, perhaps time can as well. Time dialation occurs when an object travels to a distant location at an extremely fast speed. The time passed at the origination is much different then at the destination.

Star Trek first used this idea back in an episode in 1967, a few months before the actual term "Black Hole" was coined by the scientific community. In Star Trek, it was referred to as a "Black Star" (No, not Morgan Freeman, although Shawshank Redemption is still a great movie). I highly recommend everyone interested go read some of the outstandingly awesome stuff Dr. Stephen Hawking has to offer on the subject. After all, if you can't trust a scientist that was actually IN a Star Trek episode, who can you trust? Hawking's theorys usually fly in the face of Einstein's Theory of Relativity, as such that those normal Earthbound laws may not apply in space.