Scientists have discovered how you could survive a black hole

If you ever wondered if it's possible to survive a black hole, then you may well be in luck.

It might seem like one of the most unsurvivable scenarios that it's possible to encounter, but scientists may have an idea of how you might be able to live to fight another day.

Needless to say, don't try this at home folks.

It's difficult to say just how useful this is likely to be to anyone. Maybe if the rumours about the Large Hadron Collider opening up a black hole actually did come true, then possibly.

All the same, they have indeed come up with a possible way that someone could survive the scientifically-named process of 'spaghettification', and yes, that is an actual name for what happens.

This means that the gravity is so strong that an object which approaches a black hole is stretched out as the force becomes exponentially stronger the closer you get, even between one end of you and the other.

NASA Via Getty Images

The result is that you would be stretched out like a noodle, and end up with a very long face both figuratively and literally.

So how on earth would you survive such a thing?

Well it turns out that there is a large difference between being sucked into a black hole directly and being caught in its gravity.

Black holes have an enormous gravitational field, because they're so dense. In fact, this is often how we figure out where they are, by looking at their impact on their surroundings in space.

Dr Jakob van den Eijnden from the University of Warwick explained: "The difference between being captured by the gravity of the black hole and falling into it is like being on a river with a waterfall.

Evgeny Gromov / Getty

"If you are on the river, you are captured and moving towards the waterfall, but if you paddle fast enough, you can escape to the riverbank.

"Falling into the black hole is like going over the edge of the waterfall, where there is no chance of return."

So, if you're caught in the gravity of a black hole then it's possible to escape, as long as you don't get close enough to the 'event horizon', which is like going over the edge of the waterfall.

Once you're past that point, then sadly there's really nothing you can do besides contemplate the spaghettified fate that awaits you.

While some black holes do occasionally 'burp', ejecting swallowed matter back into space, but this wouldn't be much use to you.

It's not like Boba Fest escaping the Sarlacc, you'd just be so much fleshy linguine by that point.

• Scientists warn of 'massive' black holes forming inside of planets that could have apocalyptic impact
• Scientists baffled by black hole exuding more energy than the Death Star
• Scientists studying NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope discover black hole 300 million times bigger than the sun
• Scientists have discovered a mysterious tiny world in our solar system