Well, we can sustain our life comfortably on earth because of gravity. But, when it comes to a black hole, the gravity becomes dangerous. So, can you think of the situation, like, what if the earth gets closer to a black hole or if the scientists would create a black hole? For this, first, you need to understand the black hole thing and its mystery.
Black Holes
The black hole is something where all the fundaments of physics do not work. Even the gravitational force, which is weakest of all the fundamental forces, grasps anything that comes nearby it. “The gravitational force is the king of all the forces inside the black holes”.
Well, the black hole is neither black nor a hole. Instead, it is the storage of a large amount of mass in a small spherical dimension. The gravitational pull is so strong that if anything comes near the black hole, it will squeeze that object in it. The more deadly thing about the black hole is that nothing can escape out of it, not even the light.
Whenever a massive star dies in a supernova explosion, the remnants create a black hole. The gravity is nothing but the space-time curvature so, when a black hole forms, the space-time geometry becomes so curvy that it results in the infinite gravitational force.
THE POSSIBILITY OF DESTRUCTION BY BLACKHOLES
Hypothetically, if we assume that the earth gets closer to a black hole, then definitely, it would get swallowed by the black hole. But, this possibility depends on the size of the black hole and its distance from the earth. So, let’s check out the possibility of such a happening.
There are millions of black holes in our galaxy, mostly are the stellar and a supermassive black hole at the galactic center.
THE STELLAR BLACK HOLE
The stellar black holes are generally small black hole with a mass, a hundred times the Sun. There is nothing to be afraid of the stellar ones. The good thing with black holes is that they don’t wander throughout the galaxy. They are stable at a distance of three thousand light-years away from us. If we assume that a black hole is nearby Neptune, then it would be dangerous. The orbit of the earth would change, and we would face harsh results. But, this is not going to happen in real.
THE SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLE
The SuperMassive black hole is the center of our Milky Way Galaxy, which has a mass of millions and billions of times than the sun. We are lucky that our solar system is 25,000 light-years far away from this black hole. Another prediction is that if the galaxy collides with our neighbor galaxy Andromeda, it may be possible that we would get closer to the supermassive black hole and get swallowed. The scientists predicted this to happen four billion years from now. So, we can take a back seat and chill.
WHAT IF THE SUN BECOMES A BLACK HOLE?
Even if the sun becomes the black hole, the size of the black hole would be so small that it would not affect the earth. The black hole would have the same mass and gravity as the sun. Earth would orbit the black hole instead of falling on it. But the absence of the sun will lead to the terrific destruction of life and the earth. But, the sun is an average-sized star. Therefore, it would not become a black hole.
A BLACK HOLE OF 1mm
A scientist has warned that a black hole of 1mm would be enough to destroy the earth, as it results in tearing apart. Hossan Alip, PhD Astrophysics, University of Leicester, England said — “If 1mm of a black hole form on the earth’s surface, then it could affect the one-third of the earth.” — It means that the black hole’s immense gravity would swallow the earth’s material, including mantle and core.
He further added, “It would be possible that 1mm of a black hole would be created, but, the thing is it only unable form in the present universe.” At the beginning of the universe, during the big bang, they were formed as – “Primordial black hole”, having the masses of 1014-1024 kg. Soon, they evaporated due to Hawking radiation.
COULD “LHC” CREATE A BLACK HOLE TO DESTROY THE EARTH?
LHC, the Large Hadron Collider is the most powerful particle accelerator. It has been found that LHC also has the potential to give rise to microscopic black holes. Well, it is just a hypothesis given by some scientists that these kinds of black holes would destroy the earth.
A study about microscopic black holes conducted in 2003 concludes —
- The microscopic black holes are so small that they would decay rapidly in just 10-27 seconds. Therefore, they won’t survive for a longer time.
- Even if we can stabilize it, then the rate of absorption would be so slow that the earth would live for billions of years.
But, the research predicted that the energies at LHC are insufficient to create a microscopic black hole.
So, in every manner, we are safe from the black holes. In reality, this is not going to happen. The black holes are too far to affect us.
