• Question: What would happen if a black hole came into our solar system?

    Asked by youngyorkie7892 to Hilly, Lee, Liz, Tadhg, Yasmin on 22 Jun 2015.
    • Photo: Lee Margetts

      Lee Margetts answered on 22 Jun 2015:

      The theoretical physicists would be very happy and have a big party. They’d have the opportunity to detect gravity waves!

      The rest of us would struggle to be so happy about it.

      I think the effect would be chaos for the solar system and the planets would scatter like billiard balls.

    • Photo: Yasmin Ali

      Yasmin Ali answered on 22 Jun 2015:

      I asked a Physicist and this is what he said: depending on the size and location of the black hole, a few things could happen. It would definitely disturb the orbit of the planets in the solar system. Scenario 1: the black hole sucks everything into it, Scenario 2: the orbits of the planets will be dramatically changed, possibly shooting some planets out into space. Scenario 3: new, but unlikely circular, orbits for the planets that are still in the solar system are created.

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