3 ms·
The cross-section for capturing on the Sun is much larger. The Sun is there, and it is old. There are many Suns, and they are old. I'm unaware of the observed s
by ISL 7y ago
The cross-section for capturing on the Sun is much larger. The Sun is there, and it is old. There are many Suns, and they are old. I'm unaware of the observed sudden disappearance of a known star.
Ergo, the number of planet-destroying black holes running around is likely to be small.
The much bigger risk is having Earth's orbit disrupted slightly by a passing solar-mass scale black hole. We wouldn't get much warning that such a thing was coming, but it could alter our orbit enough to get us into thermal trouble.
- hinkley 7y agoSo that'll depend on why the black holes arrive. This article is about a binary system, which I would argue meets your criteria. If the black hole were manufactured, and/or being used as a weapon, there's no reason it should hit the sun, and every reason it would hit a planet. Now I think some of the other responses illustrated why this is not a problem if our current model of black holes is valid. The "what if" in one of those books I mentioned is "what if there was more exotic physics that allowed small black holes to be stable?"
- raattgift 7y agoKnocking a substantial number of small outer-solar-system objects onto hyperbolic orbits through the inner solar system would probably lead to a tremendous reorganization of humanity's space exploration priorities, and might achieve goals such as containment without escalating to ecocide.