• Question: could the earth be sucked into a black hole and if it did what would happen?

    Asked by theshogun to Evan on 24 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Evan Keane

      Evan Keane answered on 24 Jun 2011:

      First I would like to say that if you have a black hole with the same mass as the Sun (for example) it will have EXACTLY the same gravitational effect on the Earth as the Sun would. It would not suck you towards it or anything like that (even if that is what they show on Futurama!!). I wrote a bit about this in the comment section to a question in another zone. That’s here: http://ias.im/56.1570 if you are interested. The only difference gravity-wise is that when you get too close to a black hole there is a point where you can not turn back (this is the “event horizon”).

      And don’t worry there are no black holes near our solar system, certainly none whose gravity is effecting us in any way. So a black hole won’t be eating us anytime soon!

      IF it did happen and you want to know what happens to us when we fall into a black hole, you should read the answer to this other question I had which is here: http://ias.im/44.1042 where I discuss “gravitational spaghettification” etc.! 😀

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