Can an object the size of a basketball be so dense as to not allow light to escape?

Question

If this basketball size object was to fall into the sun, would the sun be absorded? Would it dissapear? Would it be the end?

Answer 1

The short answer is yes, such an object could exist. In order for an object to become a black hole (defined as an object so dense that light cannot escape from it), it must contract to a size smaller than its "Schwarzschild radius," a characteristic that is a function of mass. For a Schwarzschild radius equal to that of a basketball, which is about 12 cm, the equivalent mass is 8.17x10^25 kg. That sounds like a lot, but it is only about 85 times the mass of the Earth, or a mere .00004 solar masses. A black hole of this size cannot form in the Universe today, because it requires about 3 solar masses for a black hole to form from the influence of its own gravity, and the required external pressures for non-self-gravitational black hole formation only existed immediately after the Big Bang. However, if such an object had formed at the birth of the Universe, it could still exist today.

If such an object were to fall into the Sun it could cause the Sun to collapse into it. It really could "fall into the Sun," because even though it would be a black hole, it would be much less massive than the Sun. For that reason, it could just as easily fall into orbit around the Sun instead. (A black hole of sufficient mass would instead suck the Sun into it without moving very much itself.) The Sun's mass would then be added to that of the black hole, but everything else that distinguised the Sun from other pieces of matter would most likely be lost forever. Everything living on Earth would soon die due to lack of sunlight. Oddly enough, though, there would probably be very little effect on the orbits and revolution of the Earth and other Solar System bodies, because the Sun would have been replaced by an object of almost identical mass, and it's the Sun's mass that governs most of the behavior of such bodies, not its other properties.

Answer 2

Short answer: yes.

Some black holes may, in fact, be (or once have been) much smaller than a basketball. Quantum black holes, produced during the Big Bang, would have been smaller than a proton at first. Stephen Hawking suggests that most of these may have 'evaporated', unable to sustain their own existence as space expanded because there were not enough nearby particles to absorb. According to the math, some mass DOES escape a black hole as the intense warping of space causes particle pairs to generate from the energies involved. One particle of each pair is thrown off radially.

Should such a small black hole come within range of the sun's gravity field, the two would eventually be drawn together (a basketball sized hole would probably have a mass similar to that of the sun). Eventually they would collide.

The masses involved might well produce a nova, in which case, 8 minutes later, the Earth would be subject to an enormous surge in photons. This would probably incinerate us. If not, a short while later the actual wavefront of hard radiation would reach us. It would, at least, strip the planet of its atmosphere and irradiate the surface, making it unliveable. If the shock wave were powerful enough, it might incinerate the surface, cause tectonic upheaval and even throw the planet out of its orbit.

If the b-hole was not massive enough to cause a nova, it would orbit the sun, spiraling inward until it reached the center of mass, and growing in size. It would continue to orbit the center until it had absorbed the entire star.

This process would take some time, possibly millennia. The ability of a black hole to absorb matter is a function of its mass, and also of its magnetic field. That field deflects some mass, just as the Earth's does. Mass falling into a black hole falls into a planar orbit, like the plane of the ecliptic within the solar system (There's a reason most of the planets travel in concentric orbits. The eccentric orbit of Pluto is one of the reasons astronomers not longer want to consider it a planet.). As the hole absorbs more mass, its ability to absorb increases. Toward the end, the sun would shrink very rapidly and its output in visible light and hard radiation would diminish.

Answer 3

Let's consider a couple things here. If the gravitational force of an baseball sized object was so great that even light could not escape. Here are a few things you could expect.

Even the sun's gravitational pull does not have the strength to hold light. So with that in mind...what you are referring to is a black whole with the gravitational strength to deny light from escaping. Even with a relatively small diameter A black whole has a gravitational pull greater than the sun. So much so that you kind of have your perspective wrong. The Object would not fall into the Sun...The Sun would fall into the object...but the correct way to think about it is that in space objects such as black holes and stars don't fall into each other...instead they "collide."

With that said...even a black whole the with the diameter of a baskettball would not just affect our sun...but it the entire solar system. But for the sake of not typing a 200+ page thesis paper...we'll say that the black hole is in a 90 degree trajectory to earth's Orbit (in other words if we represented everything on a 2-dimentional chart...the x axis(side to side) would be earths orbit around the sun and the y axis (up and down) would be the trajectory of the black hole towards the sun). As the sun approached the Black hole's gravitational pull...the spherical shape of the sun would begin to lose it's coherence. As it got closer the matter that makes up the star would begint to be pulled into the black hole itself, spiraling into what is called the accretion disk (i might have miss spelled that). Given the proper approach velocity the entire mass of the sun would be absorbed into the black hole long before the actual event horizon approached the point where the sun now sits. Also keep in mind that during this process the planets' orbits would be affected in such a way that we would go flying of into interstellar space without the sun's gravity to hold us in orbit...but much more likely each planet in our solar system would be absorbed, piece by atomical piece.

There's another possibility that the collision velocity would be so great that the our solar system could have achieved escape velocity by the time we reach the black whole...which would still have some intense reprocussions, but never the less the sun would escape somewhat unscathed...there are more than likely some experts who can argue this better than I though.

Answer 4

No No u got it all wrong. to create a black hole only happens when a sun is burned out and loses it's sustaining power . Look out for the collapse. a sun may be 4 million miles across with the heaviest parts in the middle,most all electrons have been boiled off.,and it all starts to fall together.like here gravity pulls an acceleration of 33 ft per second. that will fall 33ft the first second and 66 the second and 99 the third second etc.it is much greater for a sun,and it will crush the entire sun into a few cf.

Answer 5

Yes an object could be so dense as to not allow light to escape. But it would also not let light enter. So the sun would not be absorbed and disappear the "basketball" would merely pass through or be burned up depending if it could with stand the suns heat.

Answer 6

This basket ball sized object that did on allow light to escape couldn't be dropped into the sun...it would suck the sun into it. Gravity is based on mass...the mass of an object so heavy it would not allow light to eascape would be and is what scientists are calling black holes, Black holes can be more dense then the min. density so a basketball sized black hole with enough desity to not allow light to escape could exist. As to what happens when somthing is sucked into a black hole....that is stil in debate..Steven Hawkins just admited that black holes likley exist...he hasn't figured out what happens in them yet.

Answer 7

A black hole is the only object heavy enough to not allow light to escape. I don't know about the actual diameter of black holes, at least I don't remember any publication that estimates black hole diameter. since the sun is much lighter than a black hole, the movement of the sun towards the black hole would be much more significant than the movement of the black hole. at the end of the process the sun would disappear, but the end would come sooner, since the earth, which is much lighter than the sun, will be pulled much faster toward the black hole

Answer 8

Umm...if I am correct...a black hole is a lot smaller than a basketball (the point of singularity), and is so dense due to its gravitational pull that nothing including light would be able to escape. So...I guess in your case, it could be possible, if it could meet certain conditions proportional to that of a black hole.

Answer 9

Yes. by definition this would be a black hole and would draw in more mass and in the process of absorbing the sun would grow in size.

Answer 10

I presume that a basketball sized black hole could fall into the sun and eventually absorb it...