What If a Black Hole Entered the Solar System?

by Carson
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black hole, planets and galaxy

Black Holes are extraordinarily scary objects that can swallow anything too close to it. Then, what if a black hole entered the Solar System?

How?

First of all, we need to talk about how it comes into our Solar System. Most likely, it won’t, because all the stars within 100 light years are not massive enough to create a black hole when they die. But yet, there might be a possibility as some black holes or massive stars can be in an elliptical route. But anyway, if that happened, it probably couldn’t change the planets’ routes because their area is so small.

So, what if a black hole entered the Solar System?

Well, the consequences depend on the black hole’s mass and the proximity to Sun. If a stellar mass black hole scratched only the outskirts of the Oort Cloud, the effects are mere except more comets would be heading towards Sun. But if it were millions of times more massive than Sun, it would be noticeable outside the Solar System.

First of all, it would bring more comet in because of the black hole’s gravitational pull. Then, as it got closer, the planets started to be affected. They would all leave heliocentric orbit and orbit the black hole with Sun. Soon after, possibly when the black hole got close enough to the planets and Sun, it would tear them apart by the gravity and be spaghettified. If alien life existed with technology higher than us’s, they would probably find out the event.

After all, we’d be long dead. You see, the planets simply drift away from our star and cannot get the heat for water to be liquid. At the point of spaghettification, aliens wouldn’t even recognize the planet as a previously suitable one for life.

So, it’s not good if a black hole entered the Solar System. More comets would be the best and being written off would be the worst. After all, we need to be grateful that black holes exist to draw materials to form life.

Curious Question: Why is a black hole so bright?

If the black hole that invaded the Solar System were a supermassive black hole, it would outshine our star. Instead of being frozen, we could be fried to death.

A black hole has a powerful gravitational pull that nothing can escape it once it is in the event horizon. Also, the closer the object is, the faster it orbits. By combining these 2 ideas, it is enough to explain why.

That is because the materials near thew black hole orbits at a significant fraction of the speed of light. Moreover, they are torn apart and become small pieces of dust. That means when they crash together, they create a lot of friction and heat themselves to millions of degrees. It makes them glow in all kinds of ionizing radiation as light.

Black Hole
Image Source: Envato Elements

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