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What If the Sun Turned Into a Black Hole?!

A scientific answer to a fiction question

By Amirreza KamkarPublished 2 years ago 3 min read
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What would happen if the Sun suddenly turn into a black hole? Will the black hole swallow all the planets and Solar System reach to its end?

Of course Sun will never become a black hole as it's not massive enough to explode as a supernova and turned into a black hole. But let's examine this impossible scenario and learn some fun scientific facts!

First of all, let's see why Sun will never become a black hole.

Stellar black holes are relatively small but very dense. These type of black holes form when a massive star (at least a few times more massive than the Sun) burn its last remaining fuel and collapse.

Sun is a normal star and is not massive enough for black hole formation. After burning all the hydrogen and helium at its core, Sun will expand and cool and turn into a red giant star. Then, the outer layers will drift to the space and form a planetary nebula. At the end, the remnant of the core will cool and shrink and become a white dwarf star.

Cat's Eye planetary nebula. Captured bu Hubble Space Telescope. Credit: ESA, NASA, HEIC and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

Sun is currently around 5 billion years old and will have enough fuel to burn for another 5 billion years. So there is no need to worry for near future!

Now let's get back to the first question and this time ask it in another way. What would happen if we replace the Sun with a black hole with the same mass?

The fun fact is that we won't even notice the change for about 8 minutes! Earth's average distance to the Sun is about 150 million kilometers. So it takes about 8 minutes for light to reach to Earth from the surface of the Sun. Even with the mind-blowing speed of 300,000 km/s.

So every time you feel the sunshine on your skin on a sunny day at the beach, you actually see the light and feel the heat of the photons which left the surface of the Sun 8 minutes ago. Somehow we experience time travel every day!

By Yoann Boyer on Unsplash

After the 8 minutes, there will be no light and heat from the Sun and the only star in the Solar System will disappear form the sky. Moon and planets, which reflect the sunlight, will also disappear. Earth will soon turned into a freezing and dark planet. There will be no light for photosynthesis and no heat for a temperate weather. So most species, if not all of them, will be extinct very soon.

Another fun fact is that there will be no other huge changes in the Solar System. Earth and other planets' orbits will not be affected if we replace the Sun with a black hole with the same mass. You may remember from high school physics that the force of gravity depends upon the mass of each objects and their distance. And in this case, none of them had changed. The black hole's mass is equal to the Sun and the distances between the center of Solar System's objects are also the same as before.

Credits: NASA

A black hole with the same mass as the Sun will be so small that can't swallow any object in the Solar System. The point of no return in a black hole is known as event horizon. By passing this threshold nothing can escape from the black hole's extreme force of gravity; even light which is the fastest thing in the universe. And that's why we call it black hole, as no light can escape from its gravity.

A small solar mass black hole's event horizon radius is about just 3 kilometers. For comparison, the Sun radius is about 700,000 kilometers and Mercury, the closest planet to the Sun, is about 58 million kilometers away from the Sun on average.

I don't know if it's just me or not, but I think more about the Sun on these cold snowy days! So I decide to write about our one and only star in the Solar System here. Let's be thankful for our shiny star!

If you like to see more about the space, you can follow my works and see starry sky images on my Instagram or website.

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About the Creator

Amirreza Kamkar

Night sky photographer and science journalist.

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