• Question: How close to a black hole do you have to be to suffer the effects of one?

    Asked by 758rhed26 to David, Eva, Nicholas, Rachel on 18 Nov 2015.
    • Photo: Nicholas Pearce

      Nicholas Pearce answered on 18 Nov 2015:

      Hey,

      The answer depends on how big the black hole is – if the black hole is smaller, you can get closer to it. Just like we can feel the effects of the sun’s gravity because the Earth stays in orbit around the sun, we can feel the effects of a black hole across very large distances too, but everything would still seem pretty normal.

      At some point close to a black hole, light isn’t being pulled in by the black holes gravity enough to get sucked in, but can orbit the black hole. At this distance (which is called the photon sphere) you could look sideways and see the back of your own head because the light would travel in a circle around the black hole.

      One of the next major differences is called the event horizon. Once you go past this point, you can’t go back to escape the black hole. That’s when you’ll suffer the worst effects.

      Here are a couple of great videos about black holes you might like:
      Travel inside a black hole:

      Black hole in your pocket:

    • Photo: David Nunan

      David Nunan answered on 20 Nov 2015:

      Hey,

      If there’s a black hole out in space now then we won’t be feeling the effects because they will be very small. But scientists can measure them here on earth using x-rays (here’s a TED talk on how scientists look for black holes https://www.ted.com/talks/andrea_ghez_the_hunt_for_a_supermassive_black_hole?language=en)

      There event horizon is a the zone around a black hole where anything that passes this zone, even light, cannot escape from the black hole and you will be pulled apart molecule by molecule! Don’t worry, it will be so quick that you won’t even know anything about it :-0

      Here’s another short video all black holes: https://www.khanacademy.org/science/cosmology-and-astronomy/stellar-life-topic/stellar-life-death-tutorial/v/black-holes

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