Does the Gravity of a Black Hole Bend Rays of Light?

Video Transcript

"Hello my name is Remy Dou I'm a science teacher here at Miami Christian School in Miami, Florida. Let's talk a little bit about whether or not the gravity of a black hole can bend rays of light. It was thanks to Albert Einstein's theory of relativity that we first learned that light can be affected by gravity. And most scientists before that didn't really understand that because light travels so fast and gravity is so weak that the bend is very, very slight. But when you have objects such as black holes that have very, very large gravities the effect on light is more pronounced. When light travels past the planet the gravity of the planet will bend it slightly. This was seen in every solar eclipse. As light from stars that are directly behind the sun travels close to the sun there light ray are bent and we can see these stars though they're positioned behind the sun. When light travels past the black hole a black holes gravity is so powerful that instead of being bent around the black hole the light is literally trapped or sucked into the black hole. And black holes are basically created by stars that have reached the end of their life and they explode. This explosion is called a super nova. And the core of the star collapses in on itself due to it's gravity. It's gravity is so powerful that it absorbs everything around it. It pulls everything in including gas, it could be another planet, it could be asteroids or comets. And as it absorbs everything it gains mass and gravities get stronger and therefore it can trap light."