Countless stars, cosmic dust, abundant gas, and maybe something else? Galaxies contain all of this. Yet, they are not static; they do not simply float in space, undisturbed. Since their formation billions of years ago, they have undergone significant changes, sometimes on their own, and at other times influenced by other galaxies… something similar to people.

Black holes are not cosmic vacuum cleaners, as some people claim. Nor are they space drains where everything simply disappears. So, what are they? What happens to things that get too close to them? The answers cannot be squeezed into the few seconds of a short social media video.

On the night of Thursday, August 27, we will witness a nearly total lunar eclipse, during which the Moon may take on reddish hues—a phenomenon popularly known as a "blood Moon."