What would happen if a mini-black hole struck earth?

[newtonian]

What would happen if a mini black hole struct earth at high speed?<br /><br />Consider, for example, a black hole with an event horizon with a diameter the size of a marble.<br /><br />Consider, for example, an impact speed of 100,000 miles per hour - or an impact speed of 100 km/sec.<br /><br />Etc.<br /><br />Would it simply pass through like a bullet?<br /><br />If slow enough, would it gradually gobble up part of earth's core, initiating a very much increased rotation rate eventually causing outer earth layers to achieve escape velocity?<br /><br />Has any phenomena that might have been caused by a mini-black hole been observed?

 

[willpittenger]

Considering the micro-holes that can be created in accelerators vanish almost instantly, I would not expect your marble-sized hole to last long. Does someone have a mass for a hole that size? <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <hr style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em" />Will Pittenger<hr style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em" />Add this user box to your Wikipedia User Page to show your support for the SDC forums: <div style="margin-left:1em">{{User:Will Pittenger/User Boxes/Space.com Account}}</div> </div>

 

[newtonian]

willpittenger - My understanding is that black holes are eternal.<br /><br />However, I am not so sure about a marble sized (event horizon) black hole with high speed impact on earth or some other more dense object (like a neutron star).

 

[derekmcd]

mini black holes are not eternal... willpitt is correct in that they do evaporate. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <div> </div><br /><div><span style="color:#0000ff" class="Apple-style-span">"If something's hard to do, then it's not worth doing." - Homer Simpson</span></div> </div>

 

[yevaud]

One hypothesis for the Tunguska explosion is exactly this scenario. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><em>Differential Diagnosis:  </em>"<strong><em>I am both amused and annoyed that you think I should be less stubborn than you are</em></strong>."<br /> </p> </div>

 

[derekmcd]

I believe i read somewhere that a mini black hole created on earth (assuming it doesn't evaporate) would oscillate back and forth until it settled at the core. I imagine if the velocity was high enough it would shoot through, but return and eventually settle. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <div> </div><br /><div><span style="color:#0000ff" class="Apple-style-span">"If something's hard to do, then it's not worth doing." - Homer Simpson</span></div> </div>

 

[yevaud]

Depends. If small enough ("mini" black hole, by definition, qualifies here), it can't absorb mass sufficient to prevent itself from evaporating.<br /><br />If enough mass, yes, it might well do that. And slowly (a few years, I think) "consume" the Earth. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><em>Differential Diagnosis:  </em>"<strong><em>I am both amused and annoyed that you think I should be less stubborn than you are</em></strong>."<br /> </p> </div>

 

[newtonian]

derekmcd - Why would it return??? Earth would not necessarily gravitationally capture it - depending on the speed. <br /><br />What would cause it to evaporate fast? I thought Hawking radiation was very slow???<br /><br />BTW - what causes Hawking radiation - I forget!

 

[yevaud]

It can possibly be captured such that it will then orbit around the Earth's center of mass. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><em>Differential Diagnosis:  </em>"<strong><em>I am both amused and annoyed that you think I should be less stubborn than you are</em></strong>."<br /> </p> </div>

 

[sol_1]

A black hole is infinate density mass and gravity object.<br />There's no such thing as a "tiny black hole", smaller than others discoverd maby yes but if it collided with earth it has and infinate more mass than earth and would swallow us all. <img src="/images/icons/frown.gif" /><br /><br />Imagine as it hit the pacific ocean right in the center, imediatly the gravitational pull of the earth would be eclipsed by the overwelming might of the BH! People, cars, boats and anything else not nailed to the crust is sucked world wide to the impact point which is moving at 100,000 mph! If it hit us at 100,000 mph as you say it would rip a hole right thru the earth devouring everything within its grasp. Then it would pull the destroyed earth out of its orbit destorting it over millions of kilometers of space turning home into a astroid feild around the sun. 8(

 

[derekmcd]

??? <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <div> </div><br /><div><span style="color:#0000ff" class="Apple-style-span">"If something's hard to do, then it's not worth doing." - Homer Simpson</span></div> </div>

 

[darth_elmo]

***ERRRR!!! Wrong answer. *** There has been ample evidence both in theoretical equations and in the experimental results to suggest that mini- or micro-black holes can and do form. Also that a black hole of insufficent mass to consume enough matter would, through Hawking radiation, evaporate into a wispy cloud of energy, spread across the night sky, lost in the background radiation of the universe.

 

[h9c2]

I believe the schwarzschild radius for earth is about 0.8cm. So a black hole with an event horizon the size of a marble would be about the same mass as earth.<br /><br />The energy released would be in the order of 10^31 KJ. Compare to the estimated kinetic energy from the tunguska event at 10^13 KJ.<br /><br />My gut tells me that earth would be shattered to bits on impact.

 

[nexium]

So if the marble size black hole only slows from 100,000 miles per hour to 99,000 mph while passing though Earth, is 10^29 KJ released? Much of the released energy might be in the exit plume blowing out of the huge exit hole. My guess is; Little damage except within 400 miles of the exit hole. Much like Tunguska. Passage time though Earth is (287 old) 432 seconds. Neil

 

[h9c2]

Just for clarification, I used 100km/s as impact speed for the calculations. The energy release as calculated is the kinetic energy, only true if the object decelerates to zero instantly.<br /><br />KE at 100000mph (44444m/s) = 5.9*10^33J<br />KE at 99000mph (40000m/s) = 4.8*10^33J<br /><br />Total KE lost during contact with earth: 1.2*10^32J, so yes, about 10^29kJ<br /><br />That is 10^16 tunguska's.<br />That's 10.000.000.000.000.000 <br /><br />Think about it. These are extremely large numbers.<br />

 

[xmo1]

My uneducated guess:<br />If it were an object falling toward the Sun it would drag things out of orbit that are within say 50% of the radius of Earth's orbit. If Earth, or any thing else, happened to be in the area they would be flung into space (and out of orbit) as a result of gravitational acceleration. Nothing accurate here. True?<br /><br />Ok. Consider that energy is neither created nor destroyed, so a hole the size of a baseball would contain all the energy that went into it's creation. There would be no physical impact. Rather, the Earth would be sucked into the hole. That's why I frown on high energy particle accelerators. One of these days the hole won't evaporate, and the first thing it will take will be the physical plant. With no plugs to pull we might be in for a bad day. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p>DenniSys.com</p> </div>

 

[tony873004]

The world would be destroyed for the reasons H9C2 mentioned. Earth's Schwarchild radius is about 4 meters. The Moon's is about 5 centimeters. So something more massive than the Moon slamming into the Earth at the speed suggested would do more damage than the collision that created the moon.

 

[newtonian]

H9C2 - Is there such a hydrocarbon molecule or ion?<br /><br />On the schwarzchild radius of earth, note the last post - so - who is correct? 8 meters is allot larger than .8 centimeters!<br /><br />Ok, I doubt earth would be shattered. I would think, if the speed was sufficient, the marble sized black hole would simply pass though earth like a bullet through....<br /><br />However, what if the velocity was much slower and the mini-black hole sunk into earth's core and orbited there? <br /><br />I expect this would cause some of earth's core matter to orbit the mini-black hole at high velocity - but since this would still be in a tiny area I'm not sure you would notice anything for a while. <br /><br />The core would heat up as velocities increased and small but intense jets impacted core material in an attempt to exit earth.<br /><br />Just a guess, btw.<br /><br />Could earth already have a mini-black hole at its core heating up the core from a previous impact?

 

[spayss]

No need to worry about marble size black holes hitting the Earth. the odds would be , excuse the pun, astronomcal. If one did, however, then 'bye bye Earth' if it was travelling at the speeds mentioned. The energy of such an impact would smash the Earth to oblivion.

 

[h9c2]

"H9C2 - Is there such a hydrocarbon molecule or ion?"<br /><br />No, it's the name of a cell line that I work with. I just figured it might create confusion here. <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /><br /><br />The schwarzschild radius can be calculated as follows:<br /><br />R = mass * 1.48 * 10^-27, (mass in kg, with the answer being in meters). This is from wiki<br />earth's mass = 6 * 10^24. (This is from google)<br /><br />R = 9mm. <br /><br />edited for grammar

 

[nexium]

Hi H9C2: Perhaps you should recalculate. One or both of your m/s conversions are wrong.<br />It is of course possible that the mini black hole would decellerate a lot, instead of by 1000 miles per hour.<br />Mass to energy conversions may exceed KE, due to the extreme pressure and temperature, especially at 100,000 miles per hour.<br />My guess is all, but the lowest possible mass black holes can injest mass faster than they evaporate, while they are inside Earth.<br />If it bounced around in Earth's core long term, it would increase Earth's internal temperature and Earth's rotation rate at least slightly, but my guess is not dramatically. It might take a trillion years to eat all of Earth, with only minor effects noticeable on Earth's surface. My guess is a marble size black hole would take many years to eat all of Earth. Perhaps several micro black holes are presently chopping on Earth's core, and we will be in trouble if the the two most massive micro black holes merge. Neil

 

[h9c2]

There are two typo's. Answer remains the same. Earth being blown to bits remains the same. If the mass decelerates more, then earth will be blown to bits even more... If more energy is released more earth bits will be released.<br /><br />Using 1.6km/mile, then 99000 mph = 44000 m/s, KE = 5.8*10^33<br /><br />Answer to the original question What would happen if a mini-black hole struck earth?, With the BH being marble sized, ie about the same mass as earth, If the speed is high enough for the BH to pass through, then enough energy will be released to shatter the planet.<br />If the BH drifts into, and becomes part of the planet, then we will find ourselves in a different part of the solarsystem.

 

[barrykirk]

Things people are forgetting.<br /><br />If the black hole has the same mass as the earth, than from a distance of 4000 miles, the radius of the earth it will accelerate everything at 1 g.<br /><br />At the point that the black hole is at the center of the earth, everything on the surface, 4000 miles away would experience the gravity from 2 earth masses. <br /><br />Things closer to the black hole would experience much more severe acceleration. I would imagine that any mass within a mile or more of the black hole would "stick" to the black hole more than to the earth.<br /><br />So, imagine if you will that the black hole will punch a hole in the earth over a mile across as it goes through it.<br /><br />I don't think any life would survive such an event.<br /><br />At that speed, we might have a day or two of warning and then blamo.<br />

 

[barrykirk]

Also, keep in mind that when a black hole ingests matter they generate energy.<br /><br />Supermassive black holes are from what I understand over 50% efficient at converting mass into energy. Matter sucked into a black hole, first emits gamma radiation with enough energy to have a mass of over 50% of the matter itself.<br /><br />I don't know how efficient a mini black hole would be at converting mass to energy, but even if it's 1% efficient, it be like having a continous thermonuke going off as it passes through the earth.

 

[newtonian]

BarryKirk and H9C2 - Thank you.<br /><br />Guess not a Holy event, but a holie event! (Spelling wholly correct?)<br /><br />I wonder how many marble sized black holes are out there? Could they make up part of dark matter? See my Encarta quote in the current wormhole thread.