Can Ever a Blackhole Engulf our Earth?

It is widely debated whether a blackhole can make our planet its prey by engulfing it abruptly in the future or not. However, scientists suggest there are two possibilities to this question. The first answer says that no such event has ever happened before and there is no such threat predicted by any astrophysicist as of now. The second answer is more inclined towards the idea of a blackhole engulfing our earth, but it does not provide any details about how it can happen and when.

The other thing about blackholes that scientists know for sure is that they do not emit light and hence we cannot see them and identify them. This makes it difficult for scientists to prove whether a blackhole has ever swallowed up an object or not.

Do Blackholes Really Exist?

Blackholes are mysterious regions of space that are not bound by any physical laws of the universe. As with a blackhole’s event horizon, they do not emit light. Scientists have tried for a long time to understand the nature, size and structure of blackholes, but they haven’t been able to confirm their presence.

According to the current theories regarding blackholes, they are the gravitational objects with such high gravitational pull that nothing can escape. This is because if anything crosses the event horizon of a blackhole, it engulfs it as it falls in and never returns again.

Probability of Blackhole Engulfing Earth

Scientists even say that blackholes do not exist and hence there is no such threat to our earth. However, they have come up with a theory that says that when a supermassive blackhole engulfs another object, it emits a beam of energy so fast that it can reach us in the form of radiation. This beam is capable of destroying anything along its path, including the earth. Thus, excitement has been generated as people worry that this could happen to us as well. The theory also says that the earth might be able to escape this danger by escaping into a higher dimension or by some unknown means. If this does not happen and the earth does get engulfed by any blackhole then it will be pulverized into nothingness before getting crushed.

This is the first time a phenomenon of this kind has ever been observed by the laser interferometer gravitational wave observatory (LIGO). LIGO can detect changes in gravitational waves, and one of its tests has revealed slight perturbations of the waves. Such a change was no more than that caused by the collision of two blackholes but scientists were able to detect it because they observe gravity waves regularly using LIGO. The scientists working on this experiment were able to find that two smaller blackholes collided and created one much bigger blackhole. These scientists claim that it was the first time such a collision had ever been observed.

Hawking’s Theory about Blackhole

The most exciting conclusion to this story comes from Stephen Hawking. He claims that blackholes do not engulf any object at all, rather they suck in everything around them. This “everything” includes light and sound waves as well, which we can observe. This means that the whole world around us will get pulled right in. This should be enough to make people aware of the seriousness of this situation.

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It is important to note here, however, that Hawking’s theory is still not proved and it is based on observations he made himself with his own eyes. Interestingly, this theory was completely discredited just recently when two scientists from LIGO pointed out that they simply could not see any evidence of gravitational waves, suggesting that no such event had ever happened before and that there was no such threat on Earth at all.

Can Blackholes Approach us Unknowingly?

Blackholes’ approach is said to be extremely fast in terms of light speed and hence they may appear from nowhere as if they are coming from nowhere. This is because blackholes do not emit any light and hence we cannot see them coming towards us or getting near to us. Experts say blackholes can jump into our world just like that at the speed of light and may engulf the solar system, where lies our Earth.

Speed of Blackhole

Astronomers have long known about gravity and have used telescopes to prove its existence. They have also developed instruments to observe gravitational waves that are considered to be caused by objects such as black holes orbiting each other.Despite this, it has not been possible to prove that gravity can pull in objects at speeds close to the speed of light.

Size of Blackhole

Blackholes have an event horizon which is the point of no return. Once an object crosses it, it gets sucked out instantly and there is no coming back again. Hence, blackholes can only grow in size so much because if their size keeps increasing, eventually their event horizon will keep getting bigger and bigger as well. This will mean that nothing, including the earth if there, is able to cross a blackhole’s event horizon and to get engulfed.

It is believed that a blackhole can be no more than 50 km in size or smaller. This is because the gravitational pull of a blackhole can only be that much to draw things in and swallow them. While this may not seem like much, but it is enough to destroy something when it swallows up an entire solar system at once. Hence, things should not be too close to a blackhole or they may get caught inside even if they are very small in size.

The Best way to Escape from a Blackhole?

The best way to escape a blackhole is by escaping into another dimension or by going into some other source of energy that is stronger than gravity. Hawking’s theory says that this is possible and it is the best way to escape a blackhole as well. This can be done by means of creating a wormhole using a black hole. In other words, if we are able to construct a wormhole, then we can escape to another dimension or access some other source of energy, like dark energy. Whatever happens to us in the universe would have no effect on our world.
However, this may not seem like a good idea because blackholes may get bigger in the future and again engulf us all up in the universe as well.

Blackholes in Fiction

Blackholes in fiction are those that absorb everything around them and can swallow up entire solar systems with their insatiable appetite. One of the most astonishing examples is Hari Seldon, the man behind all the freaking Diaspora future history, who decides to hibernate inside a blackhole in order to escape from an unstoppable evil enemy.

Conclusion

The existence of blackholes is a fact that scientists are aware of, but they are not something people should be concerned about imagining that they are likely to engulf the earth. They cannot be seen, they cannot be felt, they cannot be measured, and they cannot be heard. They are just like negative space and it is only a few physicists who have the knowledge to conceive such ideas. The fact that blackholes exist is a reality but one should not let it affect their lives too much in fear. As long as we continue living in harmony with nature, it is the most important thing to remember that blackholes are just theoretical at the moment since no one has been able to prove any of it yet.