What would happen if a black hole opened up right next to earth?

Question

Would we all get sucked in along with all the other planets? And just die?

Answer 1

Right next to Earth? Yeah, it'd be a pretty quick end for everything we know.

Answer 2

Do you mean, what would happen should, say... our sun suddenly turned to a black hole?

Well, first, let me assure you that the Sun has no intention of doing any such thing. Only stars that weigh considerably more than the Sun end their lives as black holes. The Sun is going to stay roughly the way it is for another five billion years or so. Then it will go through a brief phase as a red giant star, during which time it will expand to engulf the planets Mercury and Venus, and make life quite uncomfortable on Earth (oceans boiling, atmosphere escaping, that sort of thing). After that, the Sun will end its life by becoming a boring white dwarf star. If I were you, I'd make plans to move somewhere far away before any of this happens. I also wouldn't buy any of those 8-billion-year government bonds.

But I digress. What if the Sun *did* become a black hole for some reason? The main effect is that it would get very dark and very cold around here. The Earth and the other planets would not get sucked into the black hole; they would keep on orbiting in exactly the same paths they follow right now. Why? Because the horizon of this black hole would be very small -- only about 3 kilometers -- and as long as you stay well outside the horizon, a black hole's gravity is no stronger than that of any other object of the same mass.

Answer 3

If it were a quantum black hole, nothing. It's just orbit around being quirky, possibly become an attraction for space tourists to EVA and take snapshots (gamma ray, of course, or possibly a gravitometric camera).

If a big ol' supernova-remnant type black hole suddenly appeared, I'd assume there would be some malicous aliens in the area (or perhaps just ones with a pecularly bad sense of humor) because that sort of nonsense doesn't happen naturally.

Oh, and we'd be dead if it were close enough to "suck us in." If it were far enough from Earth, it and the sun could form a binary star system, but the massive climate changes due to Earth's orbit shifting would likely make earth unlivable. So we'd still be dead.

Answer 4

Yes, we'd all get flushed down the cosmic crap-hole, just like it is supposed to happen to us eventually, when the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy wakes up for a snack. Kind of puts all human existence and endeavor into perspective, doesn't it!

Answer 5

well, if I had to take a guess, since the pull of a black hole is so strong the earth would be sucked in and flattened inbelievably flatter than a piece of paper... literally, black holes are that strong... so yeah, we would totally die from the pressure...... : ) [e-mail]

Answer 6

Yes the earth will be suck thoght the black. But there are some thoght that the black hole may be a worm hole in space.

Answer 7

Black holes are only theoretical. No one has ever seen one. All indications are that they do exist. Lacking any emperical evidence to confirm what would theoretically happen in your scenerio, it is left up to speculation as to what would actually happen. However, in theory what would happen would be a big SLURP! and the earth and everything in it would be gone. It would supposedly become extremely small and dense inside the black hole and all life would cease. After that...... who knows?

Answer 8

i heard time slows down when you are very close to a black hole but i still think we will die.

Answer 9

we would die. because the black hole sucks things into it. u answered ure own question. i agree with u....

Answer 10

We would be sucked in but well I don't think we would die. I think we would all go to a new place. It would be kewl with Large Giant trolls with weird color hair and jewels in their belly buttons.