00:00Imagine a powerful giant like the sun,
00:03facing a small but powerful opponent,
00:06a small black hole.
00:08The collision is imminent,
00:10and the fate of the solar system is at stake.
00:12Will the sun be able to resist
00:14the intense gravitational attraction
00:16of a small black hole,
00:18or will it be swallowed up entirely?
00:20The answer lies in the forces at stake
00:22in this breathtaking cosmic collision,
00:25and we will see all that.
00:27First of all, what is a black hole?
00:30A black hole is a region of space
00:32where gravity is so strong that nothing,
00:35not even light, can escape it.
00:38Like a cosmic vacuum cleaner,
00:40it absorbs everything that approaches it.
00:43It is so massive that it deforms
00:45the fabric of space-time all around it.
00:47Black holes are among the most
00:49frightening and mysterious objects in the universe,
00:52a powerful force of nature
00:54that challenges our understanding of physics,
00:57a real enigma of the universe.
01:00Black holes exist in different sizes.
01:03There are small ones,
01:04which are only a few kilometers wide,
01:06and very large ones,
01:07which are billions of times more massive than the sun.
01:10Most are formed
01:11as a result of the collapse of massive stars.
01:13Once the black hole is formed,
01:15it begins to grow,
01:16devouring everything in its path.
01:19And if two black holes or more collide,
01:22they can merge into a huge cosmic monster.
01:27But what about the smaller ones?
01:29The smallest known black holes
01:31are called stellar black holes.
01:33It is a type of black hole
01:34that weighs between 3 and 10 solar masses,
01:37while being tiny.
01:39It is as if we were taking all the matter
01:41of the solar system
01:42and compressing it
01:43in a space the size of New York.
01:45This is what is considered very small.
01:48For comparison,
01:50the so-called intermediate black holes
01:52weigh between 100 and 1,000 solar masses.
01:55And the supermassive black holes
01:57have a mass equal to billions of suns
02:00and are incredibly large.
02:02Thus, stellar black holes
02:04are nothing compared to these monsters.
02:08Imagine a massive star,
02:10larger than our sun,
02:12with a core made up of nuclear fuel
02:15and shining with a thousand fires
02:17and at high temperatures.
02:19However, as the star consumes its fuel,
02:22gravity takes over
02:24and begins to compress the star.
02:26The more it compresses it,
02:28the higher its temperature rises,
02:32until the core of the star reaches
02:34a temperature of several billion degrees.
02:37Finally, the core collapses
02:39under the effect of its own gravity.
02:41This creates an immense explosion,
02:43a supernova.
02:45This collapse creates a singularity,
02:47a point of infinite density and gravity.
02:49This point is surrounded
02:51by a horizon of events.
02:53The invisible border beyond which
02:55nothing, including light,
02:57can escape.
02:59And just like that,
03:01a stellar black hole is born.
03:03Impressive, isn't it?
03:05The stellar black holes
03:07are the most common black holes we know.
03:09These guys are found all over our galaxy.
03:11So, what are the chances
03:13that one of these little monsters
03:15will happen to us?
03:17Well, in reality,
03:19the probability that the sun
03:21will collide with a black hole
03:23is incredibly low.
03:25It's almost impossible.
03:27Although stellar black holes
03:29are the most common black hole
03:31in our universe,
03:33they are not common at all.
03:35The probability that the sun
03:37and a black hole meet
03:39is so rare that you would have
03:41more chances to win the lottery
03:43At the moment,
03:45the closest black hole to our solar system
03:47is Gaia BH1.
03:49It is about ten times heavier than our sun.
03:51And it is about 1,600 light years away from us.
03:53Which is quite a long way.
03:55So we can say
03:57that our sun has nothing to fear.
03:59But we should never say never, right?
04:01Like with any astronomical event,
04:03we have to understand
04:05the different ways
04:07something like this could happen.
04:09For example, a vagabond black hole
04:11can cross our solar system
04:13like comets and asteroids do.
04:15Unfortunately, unlike these objects,
04:17black holes are invisible
04:19and can only be detected
04:21by their gravitational attraction.
04:23So it's not as if we would see
04:25a big black hole rushing towards us.
04:27Rather, we would only notice it
04:29by the disturbances it would cause
04:31in the orbits of the different objects
04:33nearby.
04:35So, what to do now?
04:37We know that the sun is a massive
04:39black hole in the center of our solar system.
04:41It is about 4.5 billion years old.
04:43And it has enough fuel
04:45to last another 5 billion years.
04:47This star is so big
04:49that it is even impossible
04:51to imagine its immensity.
04:53In fact, if you put all the planets
04:55of our solar system in it,
04:57there would still be a lot of space.
04:59And it is so massive
05:01that it contains almost 100%
05:03of the total mass of the solar system.
05:05It is therefore difficult to imagine
05:07that a small insignificant black hole,
05:09thousands of times smaller than our star,
05:11could devour it.
05:13And you are right.
05:15It will not happen.
05:17At least, not completely.
05:19So, imagine that a solitary black hole
05:21arrives in our solar system
05:23and begins to approach the sun.
05:25As it approaches,
05:27its immense gravity begins to pull
05:29matter from the surface of the sun.
05:31The sun begins to stretch and deform.
05:33This is called spaghettification.
05:35The disk is stretched until it breaks.
05:37That's about what would happen to it.
05:39All these gathered materials
05:41soon form a whirling disk
05:43around the black hole.
05:45A disk of accretion.
05:47As more and more matter is attracted,
05:49the disk warms up
05:51and begins to emit an intense radiation.
05:53And as our beautiful star
05:55is caught in these dark nets,
05:57huge amounts of energy
05:59in the form of light and heat are released.
06:01The sun becomes much brighter
06:03and the outer layers evaporate,
06:05creating a huge cloud of gas and dust
06:07that spreads over vast areas.
06:09A real cosmic fire,
06:11but with terrible consequences.
06:13It would indeed be
06:15a very impressive spectacle.
06:17But we would not be there to admire it.
06:19As you may have guessed,
06:21the Earth would spend a dirty quarter of an hour.
06:23The intense radiation and the solar matter
06:25would cause huge forest fires.
06:27And the intense heat would evaporate the oceans.
06:29Our planet would bathe
06:31in a constant flow of high-energy particles.
06:33And the atmosphere would be ionized.
06:35In short, the chances of survival
06:37of any form of life would be close to zero.
06:39And this collision would have
06:41considerable consequences,
06:43not only for the Earth,
06:45but for the entire solar system.
06:47The intense radiation and the heat
06:49would evaporate everything in their path.
06:51All planets would be destroyed.
06:53But the sun being a much larger object
06:55than a typical star,
06:57it would not be completely devoured
06:59It would be considerably deformed
07:01and disturbed, yes.
07:03The intense gravity of the black hole
07:05would lead to the tearing of its outer layers,
07:07would create a massive explosion,
07:09an event of rupture by tidal effect.
07:11But anyway,
07:13in the end, the black hole would win.
07:15It would grow,
07:17and a new disk of accretion
07:19would form around it.
07:21As we have seen,
07:23the collision of the sun with a black hole,
07:25whether tiny or stellar,
07:27is catastrophic.
07:29But fortunately, as we have already mentioned,
07:31the probability of such a collision
07:33is extremely low.
07:35However, this does not mean
07:37that we should stop studying the black holes
07:39and their potential impact on the universe.
07:41The more we learn
07:43about these mysterious objects,
07:45the better we are equipped
07:47to understand and predict their behavior.
07:49So let's keep looking,
07:51exploring and observing
07:53the depths of space.
07:55You know, maybe one day
07:57we will come across a very curious black hole
07:59that will get a little too close to the sun.
08:01Let's hope that by then,
08:03we are already on a distant planet.
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