• Question: what would happen if the earth got suked into a black hole

    Asked by supercookieninja to Claire, Kate, Matt, Rob, Sam on 24 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Claire Lee

      Claire Lee answered on 24 Jun 2013:

      Well, the black hole’s mass would increase by +1 earth 🙂

      For us though things would be pretty unpleasant. The thing about a black hole is that it has a huge gravitational gradient. What does that mean?

      Well, on earth, you have roughly the same amount of gravity pulling on your head as you do on your feet, even though your head is further away from the earth. That’s because the gravitational gradient of earth is not that large.

      Near a black hole, however, you would have a LOT more gravity pulling on your feet – or, in the earth example, the side of the earth closest to the black hole. So the Earth would get stretched out and ripped apart as it got closer and closer to the black hole, and ditto for everything on it. Not a nice way to go, I think. It’s called “spaghettification” – seriously 🙂

    • Photo: Sam Geen

      Sam Geen answered on 25 Jun 2013:

      If it was a massive black hole, the black hole would pass right through the Earth, and the Earth would be torn apart by tidal forces (which is the force from different strengths of gravity on different parts of an object). It would then be turned into a disk of hot gas and swallowed up.

      If it was a black hole less massive than the Earth, it would drop through the ground to the centre of the Earth, where it would orbit, tearing out the core of the Earth. Eventually the surface of the planet would collapse inwards and the Earth would be swallowed up.

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