A black hole does not merely bend space; it bends time, pulling it so severely that at the event horizon, time as experienced from the outside appears to stop entirely, meaning something falling in would seem, to a distant observer, to freeze at the edge - Space Daily

Black holes are often described as places where gravity bends space, but they also distort time in an extreme way. Near one of these objects, the flow of time slows compared with clocks far away. This means the effects of gravity are not only about motion and distance, but also about how different observers experience time itself.

According to the scenario described, the closer something gets to a black hole, the more severe this time slowdown becomes. At the event horizon — the boundary associated with no return — the effect appears absolute from the viewpoint of a distant observer. Instead of watching an object cross the edge, that observer would see it slow down more and more, seeming to linger there indefinitely.

That creates one of the most striking black hole paradoxes. For the object that is falling, the trip inward could seem brief. But from far away, the same process appears to stretch on forever. Both views come from the same underlying physics, showing how gravity can produce very different experiences of time depending on where the observer is located.

This idea helps explain why black holes remain some of the most fascinating objects in the universe. They push familiar concepts of time and space to their limits, revealing that near extreme gravity, the normal rules of everyday experience no longer apply in the way we expect.