<p>The dilation of time is only relevant from the perspective of someone far away from the black hole. Close to the black hole time is still progressing forward at what would appear to be a normal rate to someone who is close to the black hole.  The movie <em>Interstellar</em> had a great depiction this phenomenon, with the astronauts Copper and Brand on Miller's planet, near the black hole, spending only a few hours, but the astronaut Romilly aging decades as he remained far from the planet.  Copper and Brand didn't experience any change in the passage of time, from their perspective.</p>

<p>Matter falling into a black hole would not experience any change in its perspective of time, so would not appear to change speed, other than what would be expected by the gravitational attraction.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-05-01T18:48:51.130Z
2019-05-01T18:48:51.130Z
Bob516
<p>The answer is neither yes or no or possibly both.</p>

<p>Take a simple example. If something falls freely towards a black hole along a radial path, and is observed by someone who is far from the black hole, its velocity (according to the distant observer) is given by
<span class="math-container">$$v = -\left(1 - \frac{r_s}{r}\right)\left(\frac{r_s}{r}\right)^{1/2}c\, ,$$</span>
(e.g. see chapter 6 of <a href="http://www.eftaylor.com/exploringblackholes/" rel="noreferrer">Exploring Black Holes</a> by Taylor, Wheeler &amp; Bertschinger - freely available) where <span class="math-container">$r_s$</span> is the Schwarzschild radius and the negative sign just indicates an inward velocity with <span class="math-container">$r$</span> decreasing.</p>

<p>If you plot this function (see Fig.2 in Ch.6 of Taylor et al. - freely available) you will see that initially the magnitude of the velocity increases as <span class="math-container">$r$</span> decreases, but as <span class="math-container">$r\rightarrow r_s$</span> then <span class="math-container">$v \rightarrow 0$</span> and the falling object appears to come to a standstill (actually, because the light from the object is gravitationally redshifted, this may not actually be observed). However, if the velocity first increases and then slows to a standstill, then it must go through a maximum!</p>

<p>The maximum <em>observed</em> speed in this scenario is achieved at <span class="math-container">$r=3r_s$</span> and is <span class="math-container">$0.384c$</span>.</p>

<p>Of course this story is different for different observers. If you are the falling object then your speed just keeps increasing through the event horizon and towards the singularity. On the other hand, an observer who was somehow able to hover just above the event horizon would measure the falling object's speed as just below <span class="math-container">$c$</span> as it passed. </p>

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2019-05-01T21:27:13.077Z
I take it this is for falling from infinity?
Acccumulation
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2019-05-01T21:38:17.927Z
For this question, in the absence of a yes or no there is little to no validity in the details.
John
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2019-05-01T22:50:13.007Z
@John what does your comment mean? There is no yes/no answer without specifying frames of reference and according to whose measurements. Welcome to GR.
ProfRob
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2019-05-01T22:51:43.057Z
@Acccumulation Freefall from infinity. If you start from somewhere else then the precise details are different but the qualitative answer is the same.
ProfRob
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-05-02T05:55:09.183Z
You mean, nothing ever falls into a black hole (from our point of view)? (But instead all the matter of a black hole accumulates at the Schwarzschild radius? Hey, that would explain why the entropy grows with its surface!) That's news to me ;-). If you have time, would you mind to explain in a few sentences how this formula is arrived at?
Peter - Reinstate Monica
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2019-05-02T06:07:19.230Z
@RobJeffries The question is asked in a yes or no format; details are important though they should *follow* the most concise and direct opening: yes or no [...].
John
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2019-05-02T13:02:55.687Z
@John This would be the perfect opportunity to go: "Short answer: No. Longer answer: Yes."
JollyJoker
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2019-05-02T13:33:25.953Z
@John Black and white answers for a black and white world? The answer is neither yes or no. I've now edited that in at the top, but it hardly seems necessary for a 15 line answer.
ProfRob
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-05-02T15:02:08.980Z
Thanks for what seems to be an excellent answer. I’m not nearly sophisticated enough to understand the math. If we we observing a black hole from earth and we could see an object just outside the event Horizon, and that object we’re traveling at x speed, what speed would we observe?  I.e. would the object appear to slow way down?
DBWeinstein
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2019-05-02T15:45:01.010Z
@dwstein  Yes. If the black hole had a Schwarzschild radius of 1km, for instance, we would see it accelerate to 38.4% of lightspeed when it was 2km above the event horizon. It would then appear to slow to a stop as it approached the event horizon, but also become more and more red-shifted and darkened. On average we would see our last photon from it after a fairly short time.
Steve Linton
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2019-05-02T15:46:37.547Z
@SteveLinton fascinating.  Is there a black hole mass at which the object would appear to stop entirely?
DBWeinstein
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2019-05-02T21:13:25.520Z
@dwstein  the mass of the black hole doesn't matter. As a falling object approaches any black hole event horizon it appears (to a distant observer) to slow down as it is going to come to a stop at the event horizon. Red shift and time dilation mean that we never quite see this happen (it emits no photons that get to us from exactly the event horizon). Also, as you add matter or energy to the black hole, its event horizone grows, so the object kind of gets encompassed, despite "stopping".
Steve Linton
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2019-05-02T21:16:22.367Z
So, have “we” observed very slow moving matter just beyond the event Horizon?
DBWeinstein
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2019-05-03T08:13:46.653Z
@dwstein  That could be a good question. We have observed gravitational time dilation using very accurate clocks on Earth. We have observed subtle patterns in the X-ray, radio and light emmissions from black holes which show subtle patterns which line up with the predictions of GR, but I'm not aware of anything more direct.
Steve Linton
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2019-05-03T11:02:42.697Z
@SteveLinton Maybe beyond the scope of this question, but the case of black hole mergers may be interesting here. We do see those happening without one BH being frozen smeared over the event horizon of the other.
JollyJoker
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2019-05-03T12:12:28.173Z
@JollyJoker if you look at the simulations at https://www.youtube.com/user/SXSCollaboration what happens is that the two black holes approach closely enough and then a new event horizon snaps into existence around both of them.
Steve Linton
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-05-03T12:26:01.877Z
@SteveLinton Thanks for the link! Should I be seeing the slowdown after 3r in those simulations and how? Presumably not in rotation speed, but how fast they get closer?
JollyJoker
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-05-03T12:34:00.933Z
@JollyJoker Not sure what time coordinates they use for their simulations. They do also sometimes reduce the time step for the most interesting bits, so watch the details.
Steve Linton
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-05-04T03:01:47.690Z
I was watched the simulation. What perspective is that from.  For a certain distance, would all that gravity make it appear as through the BH’s just freeze?
DBWeinstein
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-05-07T00:42:48.367Z
@SteveLinton your example of $r_s$ = 1km shows just how extraordinary this all is: at 2km from EH the object is travelling at over 100,000 km/s so in "ordinary" spacetime it would cover the remaining 2km in less than 20 millionths of a second. At 1km above EH it's still travelling at 35% of *c*; at 10m above EH it has "slowed down" to just 1% of *c*; even at 1m above EH it's still doing 300 km/s, and it's only in the last 1mm above EH that it slows to the speed of a jet airliner at full throttle!
Chappo Hasn't Forgotten
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2019-05-07T06:23:31.307Z
@Chappo That's how it looks from far away -- assuming any photons actually make it out from that close to the event horizon, which they probably don't (time dilation means that the distant observer will see only very few photons emitted by the falling object, as well as them being red-shifted).  An observer falling with the object sees it hit the event horizon at close to light-speed.
Steve Linton
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-05-07T12:01:34.087Z
@SteveLinton Since max observed speed in free fall occurs at $3 r_s$ and the photon sphere is at $\frac{3}{2} r_s$, it kinda makes sense that fewer photons make it back to us from the second half of that final free fall. I was just surprised to find how fast the object is travelling at only 1mm above the horizon - I guess I'd assumed that "slowing to a standstill" would take years, or perhaps days, rather than <0.001 of a second. It's mind-blowing!
Chappo Hasn't Forgotten
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-05-01T19:17:28.393Z
2019-05-02T13:34:16.300Z
2019-05-02T13:34:16.300Z
ProfRob
<p>If so, how do we know it speeds up?  Doesn't time slow down as gravity increases?  If time slows down around a black hole, is it possible matter doesn't actually speed up?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-05-01T20:52:54.367Z
Additionally to RobJeffries's answer, if you're very interested, familiar with General Relativity and have a bit of time leftover, I can recommend https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdYtfYkdGDk this video lecture on how black hole physics works. The speed-up and slow-down is discussed there as well.
AtmosphericPrisonEscape
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-05-02T10:23:03.427Z
It depends from which frame of reference we are measuring the object velocity
Donald Duck
<black-hole><gravity>
As matter approaches a black hole, does it speed up?
DBWeinstein
# As matter approaches a black hole, does it speed up?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2019-05-01)

If so, how do we know it speeds up? Doesn't time slow down as gravity increases? If time slows down around a black hole, is it possible matter doesn't actually speed up?

**Tags:** black-hole, gravity
> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Additionally to RobJeffries's answer, if you're very interested, familiar with General Relativity and have a bit of time leftover, I can recommend https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdYtfYkdGDk this video lecture on how black hole physics works. The speed-up and slow-down is discussed there as well.  
> **username_2**: It depends from which frame of reference we are measuring the object velocity  

---

## 2 answers

### Answer by username_4 on 2019-05-01. Score: 20 | Accepted answer

The answer is neither yes or no or possibly both.

Take a simple example. If something falls freely towards a black hole along a radial path, and is observed by someone who is far from the black hole, its velocity (according to the distant observer) is given by
$$v = -\left(1 - \frac{r\_s}{r}\right)\left(\frac{r\_s}{r}\right)^{1/2}c\, ,$$
(e.g. see chapter 6 of [Exploring Black Holes](http://www.eftaylor.com/exploringblackholes/) by Taylor, Wheeler & Bertschinger - freely available) where $r\_s$ is the Schwarzschild radius and the negative sign just indicates an inward velocity with $r$ decreasing.

If you plot this function (see Fig.2 in Ch.6 of Taylor et al. - freely available) you will see that initially the magnitude of the velocity increases as $r$ decreases, but as $r\rightarrow r\_s$ then $v \rightarrow 0$ and the falling object appears to come to a standstill (actually, because the light from the object is gravitationally redshifted, this may not actually be observed). However, if the velocity first increases and then slows to a standstill, then it must go through a maximum!

The maximum *observed* speed in this scenario is achieved at $r=3r\_s$ and is $0.384c$.

Of course this story is different for different observers. If you are the falling object then your speed just keeps increasing through the event horizon and towards the singularity. On the other hand, an observer who was somehow able to hover just above the event horizon would measure the falling object's speed as just below $c$ as it passed.

> **Comments:**
> **username_5**: I take it this is for falling from infinity?  
> **username_6**: For this question, in the absence of a yes or no there is little to no validity in the details.  
> **username_4**: @John what does your comment mean? There is no yes/no answer without specifying frames of reference and according to whose measurements. Welcome to GR.  
> **username_4**: @Acccumulation Freefall from infinity. If you start from somewhere else then the precise details are different but the qualitative answer is the same.  
> **username_7**: You mean, nothing ever falls into a black hole (from our point of view)? (But instead all the matter of a black hole accumulates at the Schwarzschild radius? Hey, that would explain why the entropy grows with its surface!) That's news to me ;-). If you have time, would you mind to explain in a few sentences how this formula is arrived at?  
> **username_6**: @RobJeffries The question is asked in a yes or no format; details are important though they should *follow* the most concise and direct opening: yes or no [...].  
> **username_8**: @John This would be the perfect opportunity to go: "Short answer: No. Longer answer: Yes."  
> **username_4**: @John Black and white answers for a black and white world? The answer is neither yes or no. I've now edited that in at the top, but it hardly seems necessary for a 15 line answer.  
> **username_0**: Thanks for what seems to be an excellent answer. I’m not nearly sophisticated enough to understand the math. If we we observing a black hole from earth and we could see an object just outside the event Horizon, and that object we’re traveling at x speed, what speed would we observe?  I.e. would the object appear to slow way down?  
> **username_9**: @dwstein  Yes. If the black hole had a Schwarzschild radius of 1km, for instance, we would see it accelerate to 38.4% of lightspeed when it was 2km above the event horizon. It would then appear to slow to a stop as it approached the event horizon, but also become more and more red-shifted and darkened. On average we would see our last photon from it after a fairly short time.  
> **username_0**: @SteveLinton fascinating.  Is there a black hole mass at which the object would appear to stop entirely?  
> **username_9**: @dwstein  the mass of the black hole doesn't matter. As a falling object approaches any black hole event horizon it appears (to a distant observer) to slow down as it is going to come to a stop at the event horizon. Red shift and time dilation mean that we never quite see this happen (it emits no photons that get to us from exactly the event horizon). Also, as you add matter or energy to the black hole, its event horizone grows, so the object kind of gets encompassed, despite "stopping".  
> **username_0**: So, have “we” observed very slow moving matter just beyond the event Horizon?  
> **username_9**: @dwstein  That could be a good question. We have observed gravitational time dilation using very accurate clocks on Earth. We have observed subtle patterns in the X-ray, radio and light emmissions from black holes which show subtle patterns which line up with the predictions of GR, but I'm not aware of anything more direct.  
> **username_8**: @SteveLinton Maybe beyond the scope of this question, but the case of black hole mergers may be interesting here. We do see those happening without one BH being frozen smeared over the event horizon of the other.  
> **username_9**: @JollyJoker if you look at the simulations at https://www.youtube.com/user/SXSCollaboration what happens is that the two black holes approach closely enough and then a new event horizon snaps into existence around both of them.  
> **username_8**: @SteveLinton Thanks for the link! Should I be seeing the slowdown after 3r in those simulations and how? Presumably not in rotation speed, but how fast they get closer?  
> **username_9**: @JollyJoker Not sure what time coordinates they use for their simulations. They do also sometimes reduce the time step for the most interesting bits, so watch the details.  
> **username_0**: I was watched the simulation. What perspective is that from.  For a certain distance, would all that gravity make it appear as through the BH’s just freeze?  
> **username_10**: @SteveLinton your example of $r_s$ = 1km shows just how extraordinary this all is: at 2km from EH the object is travelling at over 100,000 km/s so in "ordinary" spacetime it would cover the remaining 2km in less than 20 millionths of a second. At 1km above EH it's still travelling at 35% of *c*; at 10m above EH it has "slowed down" to just 1% of *c*; even at 1m above EH it's still doing 300 km/s, and it's only in the last 1mm above EH that it slows to the speed of a jet airliner at full throttle!  
> **username_9**: @Chappo That's how it looks from far away -- assuming any photons actually make it out from that close to the event horizon, which they probably don't (time dilation means that the distant observer will see only very few photons emitted by the falling object, as well as them being red-shifted).  An observer falling with the object sees it hit the event horizon at close to light-speed.  
> **username_10**: @SteveLinton Since max observed speed in free fall occurs at $3 r_s$ and the photon sphere is at $\frac{3}{2} r_s$, it kinda makes sense that fewer photons make it back to us from the second half of that final free fall. I was just surprised to find how fast the object is travelling at only 1mm above the horizon - I guess I'd assumed that "slowing to a standstill" would take years, or perhaps days, rather than <0.001 of a second. It's mind-blowing!  

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### Answer by username_3 on 2019-05-01. Score: 5

The dilation of time is only relevant from the perspective of someone far away from the black hole. Close to the black hole time is still progressing forward at what would appear to be a normal rate to someone who is close to the black hole. The movie *Interstellar* had a great depiction this phenomenon, with the astronauts Copper and Brand on Miller's planet, near the black hole, spending only a few hours, but the astronaut Romilly aging decades as he remained far from the planet. Copper and Brand didn't experience any change in the passage of time, from their perspective.

Matter falling into a black hole would not experience any change in its perspective of time, so would not appear to change speed, other than what would be expected by the gravitational attraction.


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