What would happen if a small black hole hit the earth?

What would happen if an asteroid-mass black hole were to hit Earth? In short, catastrophe. The black hole would puncture our planet’s surface like a hot knife through butter, but it would immediately begin to slow down because of its gravitational interaction with Earth.

What happens when a black hole destroys a star?

Close encounters between stars and supermassive black holes generally don’t end well for the stars. Under the influence of a black hole’s strong gravitational forces, an unsuspecting passing star can be completely shredded, resulting in a spectacular tidal disruption flare.

What if a mini black hole hit the Sun?

If a black hole like Cygnus X-1 were to stray near the Solar System, within a light-year or so, its gravity would cause chaos. The orbits of the outer planets and comets would be significantly and possibly disastrously altered, and this would in turn threaten the orbits of the inner planets and even the Sun.

What is the lowest mass black hole in the universe?

The lowest-mass known black hole belongs to a binary system named XTE J1650-500. The black hole has about 3.8 times the mass of our sun, and is orbited by a companion star, as depicted in this illustration. Credit: NASA/CXC/A. Hobar > Larger image If you want to know the universe’s ultimate tough guys, look no further than black holes.

What happens when a star is sucked into a black hole?

The black hole is surrounded by a ring of dust. When a star passes close enough to be swallowed by a black hole, the stellar material is stretched and compressed as it is pulled in, releasing an enormous amount of energy. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech 5. What would happen if you fell into a black hole? It certainly wouldn’t be good!

Will the Earth be pulled into the Milky Way’s black hole?

There is no danger of the Earth (located 26,000 light years away from the Milky Way’s black hole) being pulled in. Future galaxy collisions will cause black holes to grow in size, for example by merging of two black holes.

How much does a black hole weigh?

So an object weighing the same as 3.8 Suns might sound like a lot. But it’s a pipsqueak when compared to all other known black holes. Previously, the smallest known black hole would weigh about 6.3 Suns, and some black holes tip the scales at millions or even billions of times that of our Sun.