IF the sun became a black hole...?

Question

IF ( and I say IF) the sun became a black hole, what would happen to us and the Galaxy? Would the black hole/sun pull some of the Solar Systems away and start a new Galaxy?

Answer 1

The black hole would pull almost all the planet in, and crush them.

Answer 2

What if the Sun became a black hole?
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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 we observed above, 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

Assuming that the sun did spontaneously become a black hole, (which as you pointed out is effectively impossible) all life on earth would pretty much freeze to death about 8 and a half minutes later. However, an object's gravitational field is determined not by its volume, but by its mass. Since the mass of the sun wouldn't change, the solar system will be largely unaffected.

As for a new galaxy, the Milky Way already contains a number of black holes. One more won't tear it apart.

Answer 4

There is nothing extraordinary about the gravitational field of a black hole unless you are very close. A black hole the same mass as the sun would have exactly the same gravitational effect as the sun, and everything in the solar system would continue to orbit as it does now.

Of course, the processes that create black holes can be rather messy, so we'd probably all get fried in the meantime.

The good news is, the sun isn't massive enough to form a black hole on its own, so, that's one less thing to worry about.

Answer 5

The Sun is an intermediate mass star. That means along the many stars born between 0.8 and 8 solar masses, it will die down as a white dwarf after the red giant stage. After being a planetary nebula at the end of the red giant stage the sun will reveil a 0.5 solar mass white dwarf. To become a black hole, a star must be safely above 20 solar masses when it is born provided it has no close companion. This is because the more massive a star, the more mass it will lose as it enters the last stages of its evolution. As it loses so much mass, there will not be sufficient mass to produce a black hole remnant which is at minimum is about 3 solar masses. Clear skies!

Answer 6

Well, it wont go from a star to a black hole, it does that in stages, like an insect or a frog. It will go through a red giant stage and then collapse to become a black hole. Depending on the mass of the star (Assuming here that the sun has enough to do this (even though it does not) then yes it will suck up other stars, planets, etc. But as far as creating a new galaxy? I dont think so, it would have to be extremely massive to do that. And all of this is assuming that the sun has enough to go black hole in the first place.

Answer 7

If the sun became a black hole, it would pull the whole solar system into it. Not to forget, it would wipe out human life. (plants and animals too!). If you were in a black hole you would be a like a string of spaghetti!

Answer 8

Yes it will blow up or more technically implode and become a black hole, when it does the solar system will be sucked in and
will be sent to nowhere in a deep well and will be crushed by intense gravity. Lastly we will be sent to white hole where all the light and things come out of in another dimension or so.

But i am not sure whether it will start a new galaxy because i was told that it can suck any thing that it comes across with

Answer 9

We would freeze. No, we would not be sucked in, as the mass of the black sun would not be any greater, and gravitational attraction is related to mass, not density. As a bonus, we would be able to see more stars, without all that daylight to block out the dimmer stars. We'd lose track of the planets though, since we see them via reflected light. Damn, no more rings of Saturn.

But don't worry, the sun isn't massive enough to go blackholing on us, it will just burn itself out and sit there. But this is not due to happen until next Tuesday - or in 5 billion years time - I can't remember which. Either way, relax, we won't be sucked in.

Answer 10

Nope. The Earth stays in it's orbit because of the mass of the Sun, not the form it's in. The Sun becoming a black hole all of a sudden would have no effect on the orbit of the Earth or anything else. It wouldn't suck anything in that it wasn't already sucking in.

Answer 11

First of all, We would FREEZE to DEATH... Second

This is life, anything can happen, oh and in the future there will be a meteor shower, but they wont be meteors, they will be hard shelled cacoons with slime all over it, after an hour crab looking creatures will come out and dig into people's skins and go for the brain, the crabs will then eat the brain because it has a lot of proteins in it, the human population will then decrease by 30%