If a black hole (of about 5 solar masses) passed thru the Earth (quickly) would there be a major disturbance?
Question:
Answer:
yes
Oh huge. First of all, the point of contact would be catastrophic. I read a sci-fi book that hypothesized that the meteor that hit in Russia and flattened miles of trees was caused by a micro-black hole.
2nd: The earth is 8,000 miles across. Even at 20,000 mph, that is time to do significant damage to the earth.
To say nothing of the tidal stresses the gravity would throw at our planet, the amount of radiation emitted from any matter passing the event horizon would be astronomical, and probaly pretty darn catastrophic for most forms of life on the Earth. I'll let someone with a physics degree and a few spare hours explain about the tidal stress...
If a black hole of 5 solar even got near the Earth, the Earth would be torn apart, its constituent molecules and atoms accelerated around the accretion disk near the speed of light, giving off huge bursts of energy. We would, of course, be toast. Putting it mildly. 20,000 mph is not "quickly." Five miles per second approach velocity is nothing. The black hole would have plenty of time to atomize the Earth.
the earth moves at 66,625 Miles per hour. a black hole moving at 20,000 miles per hour would probably do a great amount of damage althoguh only 10KM across is would be dense enough that it wouldn't burn up at all in our atmosphere, so it would probably be large enough at impact to be a "Planet Killer"
Earth would be torn apart by the immense gravitational force of the black hole. The difference would be how much close it would pass relative to the Earth. You can always start a discussion if interested further in other topics at astrowhiz on Yahoo Groups.
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