What If Earth Fell Into a Black Hole?

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What If Earth Fell Into A Black Hole?</h4>

Black holes are the densest areas of spacetime known to humanity. Their gravitational pull is so extreme that not even light can escape them, making them appear invisible. No one knows what truly lies inside, they are one of the most mysterious astronomical objects of all. So, what would happen if someone fell inside? Or, even worse, what if our entire planet was consumed?

This is Unveiled, and today we’re answering the extraordinary question; What If Earth Fell Into A Black Hole?

Einstein proposed his theory of General Relativity in 1915 and, shortly after, it was found to predict black holes. 40 years later, the first black hole, Cygnus X1 was detected. It would still be another 50 years, however, until scientists directly imaged a black hole for the first time. This happened in 2019, more than a century after we first theorized them. 

So, what do we know for sure? For one, black holes are the densest objects in the universe. They mostly form from the remains of dead stars. Most large galaxies rotate around a supermassive black hole at their center, which are especially colossal objects. The Milky Way’s supermassive anchor is named Sagittarius A-star, and it’s currently measured to be 4.3 million times the Sun’s mass. 

Due to their invisible nature, it’s far easier to observe black holes indirectly, through their orbiting bodies - rather than directly imaging them. We notice their presence by measuring their effect on everything around them. All of which means that, as of today, we’ve managed to catalog at least 50 black holes in the Milky Way. An impressive feat, however experts believe there to be at least 100 million left to find. Gaia BH1 is the closest one we’ve found, being roughly 1500 light-years away. But, with so many predicted, much closer black holes are likely. 

So, with our title question, is it possible right now for us (for our planet) to fall into one? Unfortunately yes, it’s possible. Entire worlds can meet their fate to black holes. However, for Earth it’s extremely improbable. Estimates vary, but they’re all huge. Perhaps there’s a 1-in-40 or 50 billion chance of it happening every year. With the cosmic scales being so wide, it’s generally expected that we’ll fall into the Sun (when it goes red giant in around five billion years time) much sooner than we will ever fall into a black hole. 

Still, because black holes are so common, we can’t rule it out entirely. And, if it were to happen then the gravitational effects (in general) would likely be so immense, that we’d spot them long before the worst happens. Indeed, were Earth to be approaching a black hole, then we could find ourselves warped beyond survival long before we actually passed that infamous point of no return, the event horizon. But, the truth is that researchers, currently, have no real idea what actually happens inside a black hole. It’s also a mystery where the matter they consume goes.

From the outside, we can’t see past the event horizon. We can see the accretion disk, though, which is a black hole’s most visible component. This is a swirling region of incredibly hot gas and dust particles, typically spinning beyond 90% of the speed of light, which creates a great deal of electromagnetic radiation. If Earth ever were heading in, then this would be our planet’s final call. Ultimately, it would be the same for just a singular observer falling in, as well. First, the accretion disk would need to be traversed; getting hotter, brighter, and orbiting faster… the further in you moved. But, other than the high temperatures and quick orbit, everything would still behave fairly normally. 

The main peculiarities unfold at the horizon. Time warps (as well as space) at this point, leading to various mind bending effects. For one, it’s thought that were a person to fall in, then from the outside they would never appear to cross the event horizon, at all. Their image would gradually get redder and redder, becoming more and more distant, before eventually fading away completely, but it would appear as though they’d never crossed over entirely. To some degree, it’d be more like they had simply frozen forever.

Back to the inside, and from our individual’s perspective, it may be that they never actually notice their crossing the event horizon either. But, that said, their body is now inescapably primed for one of the most primal and violent processes in the cosmos; spaghettification. This is pretty much what it sounds like. Due to changing tidal forces at (and around) the event horizon, our person will be continually stretched towards the very center of the black hole. And, eventually they’ll become so stretched that their body loses all recognizable integrity. Of course, by now they’re dead. But if they were somehow able to witness themselves, then they’d perhaps see their own feet by looking straight upwards. Before long, though, even those feet would be no more; their body would instead be stripped all the way back down to just the very most fundamental particles that make it. In the end, they’re just one long line of tiny, tiny pieces.

So, that’s one answer as to what would happen if Earth fell into a black hole; every living thing on it would get spaghettified. But surely the planet itself could never disintegrate so completely? Say a black hole moved as close to us as the moon, then yes it may well disrupt life beyond saving… but could the whole world really be erased, too? Unfortunately, it can (and would) be. Among the earliest signs would be massive and unpredictable changes incurred by shifting tidal forces, generated by the presence of the black hole. But, and while the gravitational forces are cause for concern, it’s the radiation that would hit us first. Again, black hole accretion disks are extremely hot and radiated, which means that Earth would likely be scorched first of all - and we’d all be cooked. Our atmosphere would be completely ripped away, as part of this... with its remnants being amongst the first bits of Earthly matter to be funneled into the black hole, never to be seen again. 

The heat and violent winds that are then allowed to form would be so intense that they’d strip the rest of the surface. Soon, even our largest mountains would be reduced to nothing. Axial tilt and rotation speed would no longer be measurable or relevant, meaning that the same might not be happening everywhere, all at once. But, before long, the black hole would level the world as we know it.

Next up, and the oceans would follow the atmosphere, siphoning off into space before disappearing forever. Then, we’d have volcanic eruptions unlike anything ever known, exploding across all even slightly vulnerable regions. Now’s when the black hole’s power begins to break the inner Earth, as well as the outer. The surface is awash with freshly released magma, all of which is also inescapably spiraling and dissolving in the direction of the black hole. Earth’s tectonic plates - usually so vital to its most incontestable natural rhythms - start to break apart. This means huge earthquakes at first, before a total removal of the crust. The plates are no more, and the mantle is exposed - and promptly drained. All that’s left is the core, before even that - the outer, then the inner - is broken down and bled dry. By this point, Earth is completely lost. All its parts are spread across the accretion disk, whittling still further down into smaller and smaller pieces. All the energy it once held is turned into accreting hot gas and radiation - and nothingness.

The black hole would move on, digesting its latest meal without ceremony. Earth, humankind, and life in general would be no more. What happens to the very most basic parts, once everything has been separated? As we don’t know what’s inside a black hole (beyond the total breakdown of physics) we can’t be sure. But the very center is generally described as a singularity. This is a point of infinite density, with zero volume, where all absorbed matter will eventually end up. In this particular “what if” scenario, it’s what skyscrapers and trees, cars and books, rocks, water, people and animals are all destined for. It’s where the past, present and the future all bends and blurs into one, until it’s as though none of it ever existed, at all.