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The Schwarzschild Radius

AQA A-level PhysicsAstrophysicsLesson 18 of 24

The boundary around a black hole from inside which nothing can escape is called the event horizon. At the event horizon the escape velocity equals the speed of light, c. Its radius is the Schwarzschild radius, Rs.

The escape velocity from the surface of a body of mass M and radius R is v = √(2GM/R). Setting v = c and solving for R gives:

Rs ≈ 2GM / c2

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