If the sun were to collapse into a black hole earth would?

Answer 1

It should be stated at the outset that according to our present understanding of physics, this cannot happen. The smallest that a body can be in order to collapse into a black hole of its own mass is about half again as much as the mass of the Sun. (In practice, it's believed that even this would not be enough, since a star would lose a significant fraction of its mass in the process; the smallest star that can collapse into a black hole is generally thought to be about 2.5 - 3 times the mass of the sun).

However, if in defiance of all known physics this somehow happened... despite what you might think, the Earth would NOT get sucked in to the black hole. In fact, the impact of the black holification of the Sun on the orbits of the planets would be quite small. However, since there would no longer be light and heat coming from the Sun, all of the planets, including Earth, would become very dark and very cold.

Answer 2

If the sun were to collapse into a black hole, Earth's orbit would remain largely unaffected. The gravitational pull experienced by Earth would be the same as when the sun was a normal star, as long as the mass of the black hole remains the same as the original mass of the sun. The key difference would be the absence of light and heat from the collapsed sun.

Answer 3

No. If it were, we would notice - or stop noticing - pretty fast.

The nearest known black hole is at a distance of several thousand light-years, although it is likely that there are some closer to use as well.

Answer 4

Freeze.

The Sun cannot become a black hole; it isn't massive enough by a factor of 8 or 10. But if the Sun suddenly DID become a black hole, with its current mass, the Earth would continue to orbit the black hole just as it does now - but without the light and heat from the Sun, the Earth would quickly freeze.

Answer 5

The Earth and other planets orbit won't change, since the central mass would be the same as the current sun. They would appear to a orbit nothing. The planets would have no light and receive no heat, so would cool quickly at the surface while the inner parts of the planets would tale thousands of years to cool down. It's questionable though if a black hole of one solar mass could exist, this mass would probably be too small to become a black hole.

Answer 6

no never the sun compared to other stars in our galaxy are quite small. This is the order of stars in the universe today

tiny read dwarfs

red giant (our sun)

blue super giant

red super giant Betelgeuse, (which is nearing it's life)

and then the monster

VY Canis Majoris. This red hyper giant star is thought to be 1,800 times the size of the Sun.

even if the Sun never turns into a black hole our sun will soon run out of fuel to burn and when it does it will bloat up 300 times its original size

When that happens Mercury,Venus and Even Earth will be consumed! This will happen in another 5 Billion years because the red giants only live 10 billion years.

But no it is impossible for our sun to become a black hole

Stars like VY canis Majoris are certain to turn into a black hole considering it's size

Even the star Betelgeuse has a slight chance of turning into a black hole it is estimated that Betelgeuse will become a supanova and dim the whole milky way and it's core COULD become a black hole

Oxford University

Answer 7

If the sun became a black hole without changing its mass, the earth would continue to orbit the black hole as it did the sun. The problem is that the black hole would not emit light energy to sustain life on earth, and we'd all be gone in a relatively short period of time. It would always be dark, and it would begin getting colder than anything you could imagine. Earth would freeze solid.

+++

The Sun could not become a black hole: it is not massive enough. Stars of that size die as red giants, so the Sun would swell and possibly enveloping the Earth if nothing further out in its atmosphere, so everything flammable on it would be burnt and all the water evaporated.

Answer 8

If the sun became a black hole without increasing its mass, earth would continue to orbit the black hole just as it orbits the sun. The problem is that the black hole would not emit light as the sun does. This would result in the earth "going dark" and freezing solid.

Answer 9

The planets are held in their orbits by the balancing forces of their inertia carrying them straight forward and gravity trying to pull them into the Sun.

If the Sun were to somehow disappear (and assuming that the Sun's mass and gravity would also disappear) each planet would continue straight out into space.

Answer 10

The Earth doesn't get pulled into the Sun because it is moving fast enough not to. Imagine shooting a bullet level with the ground--eventually it would fall to the ground. However, if you shot it fast enough, as it fell you would find that the curved surface of the Earth was falling away beneath it. If the bullet goes fast enough (about 5 miles per second, or 8 kilometers per second), it will fall at the same rate as the curved surface of the Earth falls away beneath it--it will be in orbit! Similarly, the Earth falls around the Sun at the proper speed (about 18.5 miles per second, or 30 kilometers per second) to avoid falling into it.

______________________________

If we tried to do this here on the surface of the Earth, the friction of the bullet moving through the air would both heat up the bullet to the boiling point AND slow it down enough so that it would fall to the ground.

But beyond the atmosphere, there is no air, and no friction. There is nothing to slow down a satellite, and so it can keep "falling around the Earth" forever. For objects in low Earth orbit, there ARE vanishingly small traces of atmosphere, which DO slow down satellites and cause them to re-enter the atmosphere, and burn up or crash. This is why the International Space Station has thrusters to boost it back up to speed and keep it in orbit.