It's a good short hand for describing what happens to matter at the event horizon without getting too graphic. I don't believe most objects would actually get stretched out — they'd probably be torn apart before then.
Essentially, due to the strong tidal forces, an object will either become stretched out or break out into a vertical line of debris. Depending on what the material is would change the exact nature (ex. a star may get stretched out as it is gaseous, but an astronaut would probably fall apart. Neither is very pleasant though)
paleopuzzler t1_jariz1s wrote
Reply to What exactly does Spaghettification mean? by mark0136
It's a good short hand for describing what happens to matter at the event horizon without getting too graphic. I don't believe most objects would actually get stretched out — they'd probably be torn apart before then.
Essentially, due to the strong tidal forces, an object will either become stretched out or break out into a vertical line of debris. Depending on what the material is would change the exact nature (ex. a star may get stretched out as it is gaseous, but an astronaut would probably fall apart. Neither is very pleasant though)