The other day I was reading regarding the black hole. Nasa explains that the black hole are invisible. The reason behind that is they are so compact as the matter is pulled and squeezed into a tiny particle or an atom. The black hole are known to have tremendous energy especially the gravitational pull that they can exert. Nasa also states that black hole are nothing but the dying stars that gets converted into black hole.
Here is the nasa website explaining the aspects of the black hole. http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/k-4/stories/what-is-a-black-hole-k4.html
Its really interesting to know that when the stars reach their extreme years and starts dying they actually get converted into strong inbuilt compact particles. It rather can be stated as that they start eating themselves outside going through all the way inside. Black hole cannot be influenced by light. They are extremely compact. I haven't yet came across the black hole history regarding our galaxy the milky way. Nasa however states that Black hole began during the beginning of the Universe, however earth will never fall into the black hole as per NASA. When I was a kid my grandfather told me that black hole has no age, and that people if they will ever reach there, will never turn old because time stops on the black hole. Well I couldn't find any substantiate information on that though, but it might be a co-incidence as its near to impossible to count the light years on the black hole!