Discussion
There is a fair bit of news at the moment about super massive black holes being discovered in deep space.
As a physics numpty, what would happen if it came "close" to earth, would we be squashed, blown up, sucked to another part of space? How close would it need to get to impact us and the other planets and the sun?
Would duck and take cover help us?
As a physics numpty, what would happen if it came "close" to earth, would we be squashed, blown up, sucked to another part of space? How close would it need to get to impact us and the other planets and the sun?
Would duck and take cover help us?
A supermassive black hole is no different really to any other high-mass object. They don't suck stuff in like a hoover, stuff just orbits it and potentially falls in if it gets close enough.
However if one comes within the range of influencing the orbit of the planets, then earth or any other planet could be flung out of the solar system, or caused to whack into another planet, or an asteroid or comet could be put on a path which will hit us.
If earth got close enough to be in danger of being directly affected by the supermassive black hole, then it would likely be destroyed in the accretion disk (where matter gets hot enough to achieve fusion like the inside of a normal star) and either flung out in the form of high energy rays, like gamma rays, or fall into the black hole.
Personally I think more scary than the supermassive black holes that we can see, are stellar mass black holes and neutron stars. Both are virtually invisible (unless actively interacting with something else) and could be roaming round nearby in our galaxy completely unknown to us, ready to cause chaos
However if one comes within the range of influencing the orbit of the planets, then earth or any other planet could be flung out of the solar system, or caused to whack into another planet, or an asteroid or comet could be put on a path which will hit us.
If earth got close enough to be in danger of being directly affected by the supermassive black hole, then it would likely be destroyed in the accretion disk (where matter gets hot enough to achieve fusion like the inside of a normal star) and either flung out in the form of high energy rays, like gamma rays, or fall into the black hole.
Personally I think more scary than the supermassive black holes that we can see, are stellar mass black holes and neutron stars. Both are virtually invisible (unless actively interacting with something else) and could be roaming round nearby in our galaxy completely unknown to us, ready to cause chaos
budgie smuggler said:
A supermassive black hole is no different really to any other high-mass object. They don't suck stuff in like a hoover, stuff just orbits it and potentially falls in if it gets close enough.
However if one comes within the range of influencing the orbit of the planets, then earth or any other planet could be flung out of the solar system, or caused to whack into another planet, or an asteroid or comet could be put on a path which will hit us.
If earth got close enough to be in danger of being directly affected by the supermassive black hole, then it would likely be destroyed in the accretion disk (where matter gets hot enough to achieve fusion like the inside of a normal star) and either flung out in the form of high energy rays, like gamma rays, or fall into the black hole.
Personally I think more scary than the supermassive black holes that we can see, are stellar mass black holes and neutron stars. Both are virtually invisible (unless actively interacting with something else) and could be roaming round nearby in our galaxy completely unknown to us, ready to cause chaos
Wow. Suppose the good news is we wouldn't know much about it. Would be cool if the planet did get flung and we could live on it at that time!However if one comes within the range of influencing the orbit of the planets, then earth or any other planet could be flung out of the solar system, or caused to whack into another planet, or an asteroid or comet could be put on a path which will hit us.
If earth got close enough to be in danger of being directly affected by the supermassive black hole, then it would likely be destroyed in the accretion disk (where matter gets hot enough to achieve fusion like the inside of a normal star) and either flung out in the form of high energy rays, like gamma rays, or fall into the black hole.
Personally I think more scary than the supermassive black holes that we can see, are stellar mass black holes and neutron stars. Both are virtually invisible (unless actively interacting with something else) and could be roaming round nearby in our galaxy completely unknown to us, ready to cause chaos
The thing I've always wondered about black holes is whether the gravitational lensing around the periphery act like a concave or convex lens.
So if you task a telescope to looking at the light surrounding a black hole that has made it to you, are you looking at the whole cosmos squashed into a tiny space, or are you looking at a magnified single piece of space a very long way/time ago?
So if you task a telescope to looking at the light surrounding a black hole that has made it to you, are you looking at the whole cosmos squashed into a tiny space, or are you looking at a magnified single piece of space a very long way/time ago?
Tom8 said:
There is a fair bit of news at the moment about super massive black holes being discovered in deep space.
As a physics numpty, what would happen if it came "close" to earth, would we be squashed, blown up, sucked to another part of space? How close would it need to get to impact us and the other planets and the sun?
Would duck and take cover help us?
Think of a ping pong ball wondering what would happen if the eye of a hurricane passed close to it. As a physics numpty, what would happen if it came "close" to earth, would we be squashed, blown up, sucked to another part of space? How close would it need to get to impact us and the other planets and the sun?
Would duck and take cover help us?
Edited by Toltec on Saturday 23 July 12:46
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