S1 EP3: What If Our Sun became a Black Hole?

A black hole is a place in space, where gravity pulls so much that even light cannot escape. The gravity is so strong because matter is squeezed into a tiny space. This happens when a star dies in supernova explosion. There is a sphere around a black hole. If something goes inside the sphere, nothing can get out of it. This is called the Event Horizon. The escape velocity for such an object is equal to or greater than the speed of light. According to Einstein’s theory of relativity it is not possible to achieve a velocity greater than the speed of light or c. Thus, nothing can escape from such a dense material.





What if our Sun became a Black hole?


If you ask me whether our sun will become a black hole or not? Then hold on and take a deep breath because our Sun will never become a black hole. But let’s just try to imagine, what will it be like if a black hole replaced our sun? Will there be any life on Earth? Will black hole suck our Earth & other bodies in our solar system? No idea let me tell you!


Our Sun will never become a black hole because our sun lacks enough mass needed by a star to go supernova explosion and become a black hole. Replacing our sun with a black hole is possible only in science fiction films only but as you all are curious to know about this, I’m going to give you its answer.


If the Sun were replaced with a black hole of the same mass of Sun, nothing would change regarding the planet’s orbits if the black hole had the same mass as the Sun, the orbits would remain the same. Planets will keep on orbiting around the black hole because the black hole would apply the same gravitational force as the sun.

But here things go wrong. Here’s why


As a black hole does not emits any light or heat the life on Earth will not be possible because without the heat & light. Plants & animals will start dying & Earth will enter a new ice age which will never end, if Earth keeps on orbiting around black hole.


Now imagine, if our Sun had an equal mass black hole orbiting near it. What will happen next? According to astrophysicist Sean Raymond, who works at the observatory of Bordeaux in France, the orbits of solar system planets would not change much. “Still assuming these planets kept the same distance from the sun, as they do now, the gravitational pull of the sun and its black hole partner would lead these worlds to complete their orbits a bit more quickly, with Earth’s year decreasing from 365 days to 258 days”, he said to Space.com. “In the above scenario, the sun and the black hole would complete an orbit with one another every 2.9 days. This means the amount of energy that Earth would receive from the Sun would fluctuate between 90% and 110% of its average as the Sun moved farther from or closer to Earth”, said Raymond.