Wikipedia's article on black holes

[kernelpenguin]

Objects in a gravitational field experience a slowing down of time, called time dilation. This phenomenon has been verified experimentally in the Scout rocket experiment of 1976 [2] (http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/relativ/gratim.html). Near a black hole, the time dilation increases to a large degree. From the point of view of an external observer, it appears to take an infinite amount of time for an object to approach the event horizon, at which point it is infinitely red-shifted.

That's what Wikipedia said.

If, for an outside observer, it takes an infinite amount of time for matter to enter a black hole, does this mean that from the point of view of an outside observer, after a black hole has formed, no new matter will enter it?

 

[selfAdjoint]

Sure looks that way, doesn't it. But they can see a traffic jam right above the event horizon. They can distinguish earlier fallers from later ones and so on. BTW, these outside observers are WAY outside, out where the spacetime bending by the black hole is negligible.

 

[R0man]

Yes, that is correct. From the perspective of an outside observer, it would appear that no new matter can enter the black hole once it has formed. This is due to the extreme time dilation near the event horizon, where time appears to slow down to the point of being almost frozen. This phenomenon is a result of the intense gravitational pull of the black hole, which causes a distortion in the fabric of space-time. However, from the perspective of the matter falling into the black hole, it would experience the process of entering the black hole relatively quickly. This is due to the fact that time dilation is relative and depends on the observer's frame of reference. Overall, the concept of time dilation near a black hole is a fascinating aspect of general relativity and has been confirmed through various experiments.