Little Italy

In astrophysics, X is the vertical stretching and horizontal compression of objects into long thin shapes in a very strong gravitational field, and is caused by extreme tidal forces. In the most extreme cases, near black holes, the stretching is so powerful that no object can withstand it, no matter how strong its components.

The word X comes from an example given by Stephen Hawking in his book A Brief History of Time, where he describes the flight of a fictional astronaut who, passing within a black hole's event horizon, is _____ by the gravitational gradient (difference in strength) from head to toe. Within a small region the horizontal compression balances the vertical stretching so that small objects being ______ experience no net change in volume.