FROM THE EDITOR
COVER: ANDY POTTS THIS PAGE: BBC/WARWICK SLOSS/
NATUREPL.COM, GETTY IMAGES, DANIEL BRIGHT
Spaghettification. It’s the term that describes what would happen if you fell feet-first into a black hole. You’d be stretched out and squeezed in at the same time, quickly turning you into something that resembles a human noodle. This happens because the difference in the strength of gravity between your feet and your head as you approach the black hole is so great. Its pull would be enough to yank your ankles out away from you, and its pressure would push your sides inwards, turning your body into the sort of shape you’d expect to find in a bowl of bolognese. Thankfully, it hasn’t happened to a human yet (as far as we know), but we have seen it happen to stars as they get dragged into the all-consuming maw of a black hole.