The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine.
Two blind spots torture physicists: the birth of the universe and the center of a black hole. The former may feel like a moment in time and the latter a point in space, but in both cases the normally interwoven threads of space and time seem to stop short. These mysterious points are known as singularities.
Singularities are predictions of Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity. According to this theory, clumps of matter or energy curve the space-time fabric toward themselves, and this curvature induces the force of gravity. Pack enough stuff into a small enough spot, and Einstein’s equations seem