text: what is a blackhole?   a black hole is a concentration of mass great enough that the force of gravity prevents anything from escaping it except through quantum tunneling behavior (known as hawking radiation). the gravitational field is so strong that the escape velocity near it exceeds the speed of light. this implies that nothing, not even light, can escape its gravity, hence the word "black". the term "black hole" is widespread, even though it does not refer to a hole in the usual sense, but rather a region of space from which nothing can return.