"Even if the black hole consumed its binary partner, there just isn't enough mass to do anything exceptional except produce some outbursts of radiation," Gobielle said. The closest black holes to our solar system are far too distant to have any kind of effect on our solar system, according to experts.įor example, V616 Monocerotis (V616 Mon), thought to be among the closest black holes to our solar system, is located more than 3,000 light-years away. "Stars do wander close enough, from time to time, to dislodge a few comets from the farthest outer regions of the solar system, called the Oort Cloud, but this is the extent of their gravitational impact on the solar system and it would likely be the same case for any black holes or other compact masses which would wander, by happenstance, past the solar system." Do any 'nearby' black holes pose a threat? "In the same way as we do not generally worry ourselves about stars passing through the solar system, this can be extended to all objects in the galaxy," he said. "Short of a hyper-advanced civilization with near-unlimited resources and energy that would purposefully 'launch' a black hole towards the solar system, such an encounter is so unlikely as to be close to zero," Gobielle said. Experts said there is almost zero chance of black hole ever colliding with the Earth. While there are countless stars in our galaxy alone, random encounters between them are extremely rare due to the immense space between the objects, Jonathan Zrake, an assistant professor of physics and astronomy at Clemson University, told Newsweek.Īrtist's illustration of a black hole with surrounding material. "Objects we might deem as 'large' and 'dense' are fairly rare in the grand scheme of the universe, these being planets, stars, and the associated stellar remnants stars leave behind including white dwarfs, neutron stars and black holes," Gobielle said. In the galaxy and the solar system this density is significantly higher, but still almost non-existent." "The overall average luminous matter density of the universe is about one proton per cubic meter. "For starters, space is aptly named," Doug Gobielle, a professor in the physics department at the University of Rhode Island, told Newsweek. Black holes are regions of space where gravity is so extreme that nothing, not even light-the fastest thing in the universe-can escape.īut is there a possibility that planet Earth will ever be pulled into a black hole? And if so, what would happen in this scenario? What are the chances of Earth being consumed by a black hole?Įxperts who spoke to Newsweek said there is practically zero chance of the Earth ever colliding with a black hole before it is swallowed by the sun in around five billion years' time.
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