====== Gravitational singularities ======

>A //gravitational singularity, spacetime singularity// or simply //singularity// is a location in spacetime where the mass and gravitational field of a celestial body is predicted to become infinite by general relativity in a way that does not depend on the coordinate system.
>\\ Source : [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravitational_singularity|Wikipedia]]

Calculations based on Einstein's theory of General Relativity show that any object which is sufficiently massive as to have a gravitational field strong enough to distort spacetime to the extent that light itself could not escape, would collapse to form a Black Hole - the central point of which would necescarily have //infinite// density, and therefore //infinite //mass. The same calculations show that this point is also //infinitely// small. Leading to an unresolved logical paradox which questions how an infinitely small entity can have infinite mass.

Other theories (e.g.  loop quantum gravity) suggest that such singularities are impossible - due to the (proposed) quantum nature of spacetime, which means that no object can be smaller than a certain size.

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Also see : [[content:physics:cosmology:gravitational_constant]] and [[content:physics:cosmology:naked_singularity]]