Everything in the largest film franchise of all time—the Marvel Cinematic Universe—has so far been building up to one battle: Earth’s mightiest heros vs. Thanos, a mad titan. To defeat the Avengers, Thanos seeks the “Infinity Stones,” stones that contain vast, cosmic power. But what could be inside one of these gleaming gems that could defeat a team of superheroes?

In my latest Because Science, I’m taking a deep dive into the MCU to figure out why the Infinity Stones are so powerful. The movies have a singular clue—”The Collector” in Guardians of the Galaxy states that the stones are really concentrated ingots containing singularities left over from before the universe began. Could you hold a singularity in the palm of your hand (or in a gauntlet)?

I think so. The universe is littered with singularities: they exist at the voracious hearts of black holes. You probably think of black holes as giant galaxy eaters (they sometimes are), but the mathematics says they don’t have to be that big. A black hole could in fact fit in your hand, so all we have to figure out is whether a black hole could provide some kind of hero-vaporizing energy. To find out, check out my latest episode above!

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