• Question: can we ever get sucked into a black hole?

    Asked by applepie7 to Amy, Grant, Martin, Shawn, Usman on 9 Mar 2013. This question was also asked by ionalane, taraiscool.
    • Photo: Grant Kennedy

      Grant Kennedy answered on 9 Mar 2013:

      Not in the near future, so don’t worry! The nearest black hole that we know about is at the center of our Galaxy, the Milky Way, and the center is about 30,000 light years away.

      Here’s a drawing of the Milky Way from above, the whole Solar System goes around the Milky Way in roughly a circle, so we’re not headed towards the black hole.
      http://www.universetoday.com/18028/sun-orbit/

      g

    • Photo: Shawn Domagal-Goldman

      Shawn Domagal-Goldman answered on 12 Mar 2013:

      I agree with Grant!

      This is probably not going to happen to Earth, or to any other planets near Earth. But it almost certainly happens to some other planets. Most stars – and maybe ALL stars – seem to have planets. And some of those stars get swallowed by black holes. When they get swallowed, their planets will get gobbled up with them. But not us. Like Grant said, we’re too far away. So that’s one thing you don’t have to worry about. 🙂

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