Black Hole Life PreserverClose up (but not that close) of Black Hole NGC 4438 D.J. Gott of Princeton University, and Deborah L. Freedman of Harvard University have figured out how to survive a black hole. Well, you'll die anyway, but it will happen so fast, you won't feel a thing. If you fell into a black hole feet first, the force of gravity would crush your sides -- your toes would have a stronger pull on it that your head -- your 'spaghettification' would occur in under 0.1 second. Long enough for the pain signals to arrive in your brain. Gott and Freedman have figured out that all you need is something to slow the 'spaghettification' effect -- long enough so that you die before the pain signals reach your brain. What you need is a girdle -- a life preserver that would pull up on your feet and down on your head, countering the pull of the black hole. The girdle would give you 0.09 second more of life -- long enough. And the girdle in question? Well, it would need to be 12,800 tonnes in mass, and about 100 miles wide -- the size of asteroid -- but it should work!

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