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Not really: (stellar) black holes have less mass than whatever object they were born from, and the mass is the only way by which they interact with matter. It'
by SiempreViernes 7y ago
Not really: (stellar) black holes have less mass than whatever object they were born from, and the mass is the only way by which they interact with matter.
It's true that they don't have a stellar wind that pushes gas away, but they are born in the void left by their progenitor star, and once they start accreting there will be radiation pushing things again.
- Retric 7y agoThat accretion disk represents constant growth via new mass. So, either way the black hole is is sucking up mass faster than a star.
- SiempreViernes 7y agoNo, most black holes have no visible accretion, and of those that have all have variable emission, meaning variable accretion rates. Black holes are not constantly growing.
- Retric 7y agoWe are not talking about rapid growth but... Hawking radiation for a 1 solar mass black hole represents less than 1 atom of material lost per billion years (~10^67 years vs ~10^57 atoms) They gain more than that even without a noticeable accretion disk inside our current galaxy. It’s only very very long time frames after black holes collect this material that they start losing mass on average.