It's not likely at this point in time, but if you ever get pulled into the immense gravitational influence of a black hole, there's really nothing to save you. Your spacecraft is sucked in and plummets to certain doom towards the central singularity of the celestial behemoth. Some scientists say that you may actually be able to travel back in time if you survive, but chances are, you won't.

The most likely scenario is a terrified astronaut experiencing one of the most grotesque and painful deaths possible: Spaghettification. Essentially, what happens is your body gets stretched thin before tremendous gravity shreds you into space dust. But that's after your organs fail after the horrific stress that they experience because of the gargantuan forces.

Fortunately, Australian astronomers Geraint Lewis and Juliana Kwan have found a way to lengthen your living time if you ever get in this predicament. They say that instead of struggling in futile fashion to break free, you're actually better off accelerating for some time and switching your thrusters off to prolong the fall to death. Kwan explains:

Consider a race to the centre between a free faller and a rocketeer. Suppose they cross the event horizon together holding hands. As they cross, they start identical stop watches. One falls inwards, while the other accelerates towards the centre for a little, then swings their rocket round and decelerates such that the free faller and the rocketeer meet and clasp hands again just before hitting the singularity. A check on their stop watches would reveal that the free faller would experience the most personal time in the trip.