Not much of a worry there. The solar system isn't even close to one. We'd observe the gravitational effects. Earth-passing asteroids would be a great opportunity to launch missions to learn more about asteroids. Well, sort of. Most of the impacts that will ever happen on Earth have already happened. There's less and less material floating around unattached in the solar system every time there is an impact. There's also a great degree of predictability when it comes to orbital mechanics. It's not like asteroids have maneuvering thrusters, or someone at the other end actually trying to push them at Earth. Remember; the solar system is three dimensional. Yeah, there's a lot of stuff that gets pushed or pulled into the inner solar system, but the vast majority of it has no chance to ever hit Earth. Those nice 2d models of the orbits don't really show that. Well, there are some dwarf galaxies that are companions of the milky way, but the nearest significant galaxy is Andromeda, at some 2.5 million light-years away and closing. Meaning that it will take 2.5 million years for any sort of light-speed-bound signal to traverse the distance.. in both directions. Should be more exciting than depressing. Try reading or watching some of the less depressing topics than global disasters. There is a theoretical possibility that the LHC could create microscopic black holes, but they would evaporate from hawking radiation before they posed anything like a significant hazard. There's not enough mass involved pose an actual gravitational hazard.
You've got about as much chance of dancing out of the way of a small asteroid hitting Earth as you do avoiding that big rig who's driver suddenly has a seizure in the lane next to you. Colonize multiple planets and multiple stars. That's the only solution to the problem. This is not yet feasible, though not as far fetched as it might seem. There are some permanent colonization targets that are technically achievable now, but would require immense investments (tens of billions of dollars at least). No governments on Earth have the kind of patience or vision to sponsor such missions, however, and they're the only groups with the ability to venture such large amounts without a more certain payoff.
Not necessarily for a solar mass black hole. And especially not for a primordial black hole. They are dense but small, and so are their gravity wells. We'd probably have decades of warning, but it is the kind of thing that could happen in the span of a human lifetime. The main thing that protects us is the "big sky" theory...even if there are a lot of them out there, space is extremely big. One could pass within a light year of us and we might not even know it is there. And even the chances of that happening are very small. Also, black holes are so small and dense that they likely would not get trapped into an orbit with the sun or planets anyway....they would pass through the solar system and keep going. Even if they did not, it would not matter. People (non-scientists) like to equate these with "normal" black holes and they simply arent. These are sub-atomic in size. They are "eating" things the size of electrons. Like any black hole there is a limit to how much matter they can absorb at once, and these things have an extremely small event horizon (much smaller than an atom). It would take a VERY long time for a micro-back hole to gain enough mass to even be noticeable. Like on the order of millions or billions of years. You could have one inside your body and live your entire life never knowing its there. Even if they were completely stable it would take so long for them to become massive enough to cause a problem that the Earth will probably have been swallowed by the sun by then anyway and it wont matter.
Travelling at the speed of light you would, from your own point of view, be able to travel anywhere in the universe instantly.
The universe is indeed a violent place. We don't always see it because of our slow perception of time and because we exist in such a tiny little part of it, but there's all sorts of (*)(*)(*)(*) that could just come out of nowhere and kill all of us. It's why I can't take the "universe is perfectly suited to us" argument seriously.
Geddon, don't watch all the universe docs on the science channel. You'll never sleep again. But I love 'em and I'm fascinated. My fave series if "How the universe works".
Long ago as a kid (yes it was long ago), when I saw the Milky Way and other galaxies, I immediately realized they looked like the drain in the sink or tub, and that at their center was something swallowing everything that was around it. I was right, without having one iota of knowledge of astronomy/physics. And it wasn't until much much later that scientists even postulated the probability of a black hole at the center of these galaxies. Obvious to all but the educated. Sometimes things ARE that simple.
lol i find they as they are teribbly horrific, its also just insanely awesome how the universe works. as crazy as it is its equally incredible.
Granny says, "Dat's right, we all gonna die - get ready to bend over an' kiss yer butt goo'bye... Huge black hole eating worlds in Milky Way November 05, 2011 - A supernova within the galaxy M100, that may contain the youngest known black hole in our cosmic neighborhood.
We just had a aircraft-carrier/cityblock sized asteroid pass close to Earth. (YU 55) a couple of days ago. It's trajectory apparently did not bring it close enough to enter our atmosphere.
Uncle Ferd says he can feel the pull of it after he's had a few o' Granny's brownies... Supermassive black hole bigger than scientists thought was possible Sept. 24, 2015 - The black hole is 350 million times more massive than our sun.
Hey, what about this? Earth is hit by a black hole made of dark matter. It doesn't destroy us but sets us off into a different dimension/universe every week. Sort of like Space 1999 but with the whole Earth instead of just the moon. Think I could pitch it to SyFy?
Jesus, that's big, it's even bigger than Chris Christy's breakfast, but still a little under the size of Trump's ego
Pretty much this... However eventually we indeed will be hit with a large meteor or asteroid, however I don't believe any object could wipe humanity off the earth causing the extinction of humans.. Anything that big we would have years in advance to prepare... Of course there are gamma ray bursts and quasars, however the chances of earth being hit over the next 5 billion years (the rest of our suns life) is extremely low...
No you wouldn't.... If someone traveled at the speed of light it would take them 7 minutes from their perspective to hit the sun. You're thinking of time dilation, but a light year to an individual is still a year from that individuals perspective.
NASA's corporate message 'Superlatives R' Us'? In other words, everything's gotta be bigger and better than 'previously thought'! I guess they think it impresses more?
