Jul 05, 2024 21:00:00

What would happen if a palm-sized black hole suddenly appeared in front of you?

Black holes can range from quantum-scale

micro black holes smaller than atoms, such as those created in particle accelerator experiments, to supermassive black holes with a size and weight that could completely swallow the solar system. Science YouTube channel Kurzgesagt has explained in an easy-to-understand short movie what would happen if a black hole the size of a pocket appeared in front of us.

The Deadly Power of a Coin-Sized Black Hole #shorts - YouTube


Basically, the size and mass of a black hole are proportional: if there was a black hole that 'weighed' the same as a 5 gram coin, it would be a very small black hole.

It is this big compared to an atom.

This miniature black hole would instantly evaporate due to the radiation of heat known as

Hawking radiation , and a massive explosion would occur, converting its 5 grams of mass into 450 terajoules of energy.

The energy is greater than the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined.

In other words, if a 5 gram black hole appeared in front of you, you would evaporate and die along with the black hole.

Now let's consider what would happen if we came across a black hole the same 'size' as the coin.

Though it's only a few centimetres, its mass is greater than that of the Earth.

Since gravity is inversely proportional to the square of the distance, a black hole with a mass just over Earth compressed to the size of a coin would exert a gravitational force trillions of times greater than that of the Earth's surface.

If such a black hole were to appear in front of us, we would be torn apart by

the spaghetti phenomenon caused by extreme tidal forces and swallowed into the black hole.

The black hole would sink deep into the Earth and consume it from the inside, until all that's left is a disk of hot rock orbiting the black hole.

In other words, the answer to the question, 'What if a coin-sized black hole suddenly appeared in front of you?' is, 'Not only would that person die, but the Earth itself would be eaten by the black hole.'

'Let's not let that happen,' Kurzgesagt concluded.

This video is a brief excerpt of a video previously released by Kurzgesagt with new animations. The full version of the movie, which explains how a black hole that has taken over the Earth's orbit and brought disaster to the solar system, can be seen in the article below.

What would happen to you if a pocket-sized black hole suddenly appeared in front of you? - GIGAZINE

by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center