4 ms·
Almost nothing falls straight into a star/neutron star/black hole. For it to fall straight in, it would have to be moving exactly towards the location of the s/
by dtgriscom 4y ago
Almost nothing falls straight into a star/neutron star/black hole. For it to fall straight in, it would have to be moving exactly towards the location of the s/ns/bh, which is very unlikely (and won't happen for lots of matter at the same time).
Generally, matter that's near a large mass is circling in a disc; if it isn't, then the particles will collide with each other until they've averaged out their motion. So, relative to that large mass, there will be a whole lot of angular momentum in that matter. The angular momentum doesn't go away as it approaches the mass; if it manages to hit the mass then the angular momentum will be added to the mass.
Fun fact: it's hard for us to send an object to collide with our Sun, because you have to cancel out all the angular momentum that everything on Earth carries.