• Question: if a black hole engulfed our sun would our solar system dismantle

    Asked by 626sptm52 to Ollie on 8 Mar 2018.
    • Photo: Alexander Burke

      Alexander Burke answered on 8 Mar 2018:


      Yes. Even before the black hole enters our solar system it would wreak havoc on the planets and asteroids. Its immense gravity would strip the planets away from the sun and would likely put them on journeys where the planets smash into each other. It would be highly likely that we would end up smashing into mars or venus smashing into the earth which would destroy our planet instantly. To put this into perspective… the asteroid that hit the planet, which killed the dinosaurs, was only 10 to 15 kilometres in diameter. Mars is 6,800km in diameter! Think of what would happen to our planet if mars hit it… it would be completely destroyed!
      Let’s now assume that a black hole instantly appears where the sun is, eats it and then disappears. To make this clearer, imagine that the Sun instantly disappeared. Then, approximately 8 minutes after the sun disappears, the night sky would turn black (since there is no light) and we would no longer orbit around the sun and be cast off on a journey outside the solar system. It would get incredibly cold and everything would die on the earth very quickly. It wouldn’t be very nice!

      I hope this answers your question. Good question by the way =)

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