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Q:
If a black hole could 'eat' so many stars but still conserve
their energy, how is it that the material the black hole is made from
could withstand such an enormous energy?
A:
When someone says that a black hole conserves energy they just
mean that the amount of energy (or matter) that falls into a black hole
is the same amount that the black hole grows. So if a 1 pound shoe
falls into a black hole, the black hole gets 1 pound more massive.
We don't know what happens to matter once it falls into a black hole,
but we do know that its energy is still there and is not lost. For a
description of how black holes form and grow, see our field guide on black holes:
http://chandra.harvard.edu/xray_sources/blackholes.html
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