would it hurt to get sucked into a black hole?

Answer 1

Suppose that, possessing a proper spacecraft and a self-destructive urge, I decide to go black-hole jumping and head for an uncharged, nonrotating ("Schwarzschild") black hole. In this and other kinds of holes, I won't—before I fall in—be able to see anything within the event horizon. But there's nothing locally special about the event horizon. When I get there, it won't seem like a particularly unusual place, except that I will see strange optical distortions of the sky around me from all the bending of light that goes on.

But as soon as I fall through, I'm doomed. I have to hit the singularity eventually. Before I get there, there will be enormous tidal forces. These forces are due to the curvature of spacetime—which might squash me and my spaceship in some directions and stretch them in another, until I look like a piece of spaghetti.

At the singularity, all of present physics is mute as to what will happen, but I won't care. I'll be dead!

For ordinary black holes of a few solar masses, there are actually large tidal forces well outside the event horizon, so I probably wouldn't even make it into the hole alive and unstretched. For a black hole of 8 solar masses, for instance, the value of r at which tides become fatal is about 400 km, and the Schwarzschild radius is just 24 km. But tidal stresses are proportional to M/r^3. Therefore the fatal r goes as the cube root of the mass, whereas the Schwarzschild radius of the black hole is proportional to the mass. So for black holes larger than about 1000 solar masses I could probably fall in alive, and for still larger ones I might not even notice the tidal forces until I'm through the horizon and doomed.

Answer 2

It depends on the size of the black hole.

If it was planet-sized mass (if such things exist) it would be so small and so dense that the tidal effect would be like walking into an exploding atomic bomb. Your demise would also be pretty quick with a black hole the size of a star. But if it were, say galaxy sized, you might not notice much, because the event horizon would be very great, and the density surprisingly low.

There is even the possibility that the universe as a whole is closed. If that were the case, nothing can escape, and we are actually living inside a universe-sized black hole; and the density is not very great at all.

Another thing to think about is that, if you did fall into a black hole, it would be over instantly as far as you were concerned; but because of gravitational time dilation, to an outside observer, you would seem to be falling towards the event horizon for ever.

Mighty strange things, black holes.

Answer 3

If you get pulled into a stellar mass black hole, you'll die long before you reach it of what physicists call "spaghettification." Tidal forces will stretch them rip you apart into smaller and smaller pieces until all that's left is a stream of plasma that hits the hole's event horizon. Your suit would probably rupture and you'd be spared the agony of being ripped apart alive. But as the mass of a black hole increases, the density the collapsing object requires to become one decreases. That means an astronaut could fly into a supermassive black hole, like the ones that power quasars, without being pulled apart. However, he would be unable to escape from within the event horizon, and he'll fall towards the singularity at the center where he'd be crushed out of existance. Being pulled into a black hole is a truly horrible way to die, no doubt about it.

Answer 4

If it was a supergiant balckhole like the one at the centre of the galaxy you would not even notice crossing the event horizon. The curvature of space there would only be a few times what it is here on earth and would be entirely negligible.

You would, of course, be crushed by the time you got to the cetnre of the black hole.

Answer 5

Yes. As you reached areas where the tidal effect was great enough, the gravity would start stretching your body out, which would hurt a great deal and probably kill you very quickly.

Answer 6

would it hurt to get crushed by a garbage compactor?
would it hurt to get hit by a car?
would it hurt if a tremendous force were to crush us into a space so small, we can't see it?

Yes.

Answer 7

Don't think so. The force is so great and fast that you get knocked out and reduced to nothing, instantly .

Answer 8

Oh yes it sure would, it would not only hurt, but it will rip you apart, literally! If you ask, well do you die? I say, you tell me.

Answer 9

yeah if you're not bruce campbell!