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  • Not once has a single black hole

  • disturbed our planetary routine.

  • But what if it did?

  • This is WHAT IF,

  • and here's what would happen

  • if a black hole appeared in our Solar System.

  • Black holes aren't exactly holes.

  • They're a large amount of matter

  • that has been crammed into a very small space.

  • Being so compressed gives them an incredibly strong gravitational pull.

  • Not even light can escape a black hole's grasp.

  • And if you get too close to a black hole,

  • you yourself would get compressed

  • to an infinitely small dot.

  • A black hole entering our Solar System would not be good news.

  • But just how bad would it be?

  • The extent of the havoc that a single black hole would wreak on the Solar System

  • depends on how big that black hole was,

  • and how far into the Solar System it got.

  • If we're talking a supermassive black hole,

  • like the one residing at the center of our Milky Way galaxy,

  • our chances of survival are slim.

  • A monster that size would cause us trouble

  • even from a distance of a few light years away.

  • Presumably, supermassive black holes have stars, planets,

  • asteroids and comets orbiting around them.

  • All the debris that a supermassive black hole picked up on its way through space

  • would bombard our Solar System.

  • Then, that gigantic black hole would tug whatever was left into an orbit around it.

  • We'd be long gone by that time,

  • wiped out by some rogue planet that smashed into Earth.

  • Let's try our chances with a stellar black hole.

  • This is a black hole that's up to 20 times more massive than our Sun.

  • If this kind of black hole made it to the outer reaches of the Solar System,

  • it would cause a gravitational mess in the Oort cloud -

  • the area of icy, comet-like objects.

  • A stellar black hole would hurl more comets and asteroids

  • into the inner Solar System,

  • where they could strike the planets.

  • Earth might take some hits, too.

  • But that would be just a warm-up.

  • As the black hole made its way through the Solar System,

  • it would disrupt the orbits of all the planets in it.

  • Likely, our space intruder would tangle the biggest planet in the system.

  • The black hole would pull all the gas from the giant planet,

  • turning it into a swirling hot disk.

  • It would keep pulling until it consumed Jupiter entirely.

  • What would happen to our own planet in this gravitational mess?

  • Things wouldn't be good for Earth.

  • The black hole would start affecting us even from a distance of Pluto's orbit.

  • First, it would pull us out of the habitable zone,

  • and we humans might not be ready to adapt to this change.

  • We wouldn't have much time to complain though,

  • since there would be worse things ahead.

  • As the black hole approaches Earth,

  • it would cause the cracking of the planet's crust.

  • We'd see extreme earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

  • The ocean tides would be devastating, too.

  • By the time the black hole passed Earth's orbit,

  • there would be nothing left of our planet but a sterile surface paved with magma.

  • Maybe Earth would be ejected from the Solar System altogether.

  • That would probably be for the best,

  • because when the black hole got close enough to the Sun,

  • it would start drinking up the Sun's flaming gas,

  • and pulling our center of gravity into its insatiable stomach.

  • If somehow, Earth stuck around for the afterparty,

  • it would be torn to shreds and consumed by the black hole.

  • Luckily, black holes don't seem to be very numerous in the Universe.

  • The chances are better for a rogue planet to enter our Solar System.

  • But that's a story for another WHAT IF.

Not once has a single black hole

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