Can Our Sun Become a Black Hole + Crazy Universe Facts

Bright Side

Imagine if the Sun suddenly turned into a black hole—sounds wild, right? First off, Earth wouldn’t get sucked in like in the movies because the Sun’s mass wouldn’t change, so our orbit would stay the same. But things would get really dark and cold, fast. Without sunlight, all plants would die, and the temperature would drop drastically, making life nearly impossible. We’d see the Sun shrink to a tiny point, but its powerful gravity would remain.

Transcript

00:00Well, it turns out black holes might not be as elusive as we once thought.

00:05They might be hiding within stars.

00:07In this case, the extra mass of some of these space slanders

00:11could explain weird gravitational effects in the universe.

00:15Previously, dark matter was the cause of these phenomena.

00:18The black holes I'm talking about might be those itty-bitty ones

00:22that appeared at the dawn of time when the universe was just a baby.

00:26And they may still be lurking in the hearts of giant stars.

00:30A team of scientists say the idea might be quite plausible.

00:34Astronomers could detect such trapped black holes

00:37by the vibrations they produce on their star's surfaces.

00:40And if there are many of them out there in the cosmos,

00:43they might function as the very dark matter that holds the universe together.

00:49Almost any black hole was once a massive star

00:52that collapsed in on itself and became incredibly dense.

00:56Black holes have immense gravitational pull.

00:58Even light can't escape their clutches.

01:01People often think that black holes work like vacuums, pulling space inside.

01:06But that's not the case.

01:08Black holes can only swallow stuff that is extremely close,

01:12usually space objects venturing into their event horizon.

01:15That's a black hole's point of no return.

01:18Once you cross this border, there's no escape.

01:20In 1971, renowned physicist Stephen Hawking suggested another origin of black holes.

01:28If we took the thick soup of particles that appeared moments after the Big Bang and the birth of the universe,

01:35we'd be bound to find some spots dense enough to collapse and create black holes.

01:40Such holes, which got the name of primordial black holes, could range in size from microscopic to gigantic.

01:48If they were pervasive and numerous enough, primordial black holes could act as dark matter,

01:54knitting the cosmos together with their enormous gravity.

01:57And dark matter is believed to make up 85% of all the matter in the universe.

02:02So what's the matter?

02:05Astronomers have been searching for primordial holes by looking for flashes

02:09that would occur when they pass in front of distant bright objects,

02:13magnifying their light like a lens.

02:15But they haven't spotted even one yet.

02:18On the other hand, if a primordial black hole was tiny enough,

02:22with a mass like that of an asteroid,

02:24and a diameter as minuscule as a hydrogen atom,

02:27the flashes wouldn't be bright enough to be detected by such surveys.

02:31Then the team, researching the phenomenon of primordial black holes,

02:36decided to consider the consequences of a universe

02:38where dark matter was made entirely out of tiny black holes.

02:43They concluded that one of such teensy holes

02:46could be dashing through the solar system at any given time.

02:49Some might occasionally get trapped within gas clouds,

02:52giving birth to new stars, ending up in their centers.

02:56The next step of the researchers was to build a model of a black hole

03:00existing in the very core of a star,

03:02where hydrogen atoms undergo fusion and produce light and heat.

03:06At first, they didn't see anything unusual.

03:09Even a super-dense stellar core is mostly empty space.

03:13And it wouldn't be easy for a microscopic black hole

03:16to find matter to consume there.

03:18That's why its growth would be incredibly slow.

03:21It could take longer than the lifetime of the universe

03:23for this tiny hole to eat a star.

03:27But what if a larger hole,

03:29as massive as the dwarf planet Pluto or asteroid Ceres,

03:33appeared at the center of a star?

03:35Then it would get bigger in a matter of a few hundred million years.

03:39The material would keep spiraling into the black hole,

03:43creating a disk that would heat up because of friction,

03:46emitting radiation.

03:47Once the black hole grew to the size of Earth,

03:49it would start emitting even more radiation,

03:53shining extremely brightly.

03:55It would also be churning up the star's core.

03:57And the star itself would turn into a black hole-powered

04:00rather than a fusion-powered object.

04:03Such entities were dubbed Hawking stars.

04:07To cool off,

04:08the exterior of a Hawking star would form a red giant.

04:11That's what our Sun is likely to turn into as it gets older.

04:15But a red giant star with a primordial black hole at its center

04:19would be cooler than the stars that have reached this stage

04:22through regular means.

04:24Such stars are known as red stragglers.

04:28To find out whether they indeed host a black hole,

04:32astronomers might need to tune into the frequencies

04:34at which stars vibrate.

04:36Since a Hawking star would mostly affect the interior of the star

04:40rather than its topmost layers,

04:42the star would thrum with a certain combination of frequencies.

04:46The waves created in the process

04:48could be detected in a way the star's light would pulse and thrum.

04:52So all scientists need to do now

04:54is study the already known red stragglers

04:57and figure out whether any of them

04:59show the characteristic vibrations of a black hole.

05:03Now, should we worry about the Sun?

05:05Since our star hasn't reached its red giant stage yet,

05:08we can't know whether it'll turn into a cool red straggler.

05:12What we know, though,

05:14is that our star might contain those tiny black holes

05:17that formed in the Big Bang.

05:18But now, we have no means to check whether they're indeed there.

05:22Currently, our star is around the midpoint of its existence.

05:29Middle-Aid.

05:30Hmm.

05:31It creates energy non-stop by fusing hydrogen atoms within its core.

05:36Once it runs out of hydrogen in its core,

05:38it will enter its red giant phase and begin to collapse.

05:42It'll happen in about 5 billion years.

05:44Don't hold your breath.

05:45And the phase itself will last for a billion years or so

05:48before our star depletes its fusible materials

05:51and loses its outer layers.

05:53It will leave behind a tiny white dwarf star

05:56half as massive as the Sun

05:58and around the size of our planet.

06:01In some cases,

06:02when the gravitational collapse of a star's core is complete,

06:06the star remnants turn into a black hole.

06:09But that's not the fate awaiting our Sun.

06:11You see, our star just doesn't have what it takes

06:14to become a black hole.

06:16It's not heavy enough.

06:17There are a few conditions that can affect

06:20whether a star can turn into a black hole,

06:23including its composition, rotation,

06:25and the processes that lead to its evolution.

06:28But the main requirement is still the right mass.

06:32Stars with 20 to 25 times the mass of the Sun

06:35can potentially experience the gravitational collapse

06:38needed to form black holes.

06:40In other words,

06:41the Sun is simply too small to form a black hole.

06:44But what would happen to us if it did?

06:49You might assume that if the Sun turned into a black hole,

06:52our planet would be doomed to be pulled into it.

06:55But do you remember the basics?

06:57Black holes aren't giant space vacuum cleaners,

07:00just sitting there and waiting for a new planet or star

07:03to get their hands on.

07:04Mwah!

07:05But black holes don't have enough gravitational force

07:08beyond that created by their incredible mass.

07:11And if the Sun were to turn into a black hole,

07:14which will not happen,

07:16this hole would still have the same mass as our former star.

07:19And Earth's orbit around this newly formed black hole

07:22wouldn't change.

07:24But all other things would change dramatically.

07:27The Sun, which is currently around 432,000 miles in radius,

07:32would shrink to a mere 1.9 miles in radius.

07:35But you wouldn't be concerned with the absence of the bright yellow sphere in the sky,

07:40since you have many more pressing issues on your hands.

07:43Our planet's main heat source would be gone,

07:46leaving us frozen in the dark.

07:48Without this source of energy,

07:49photosynthesis would immediately stop,

07:52disrupting entire food chains.

07:54Eventually, all life on Earth would be extinguished.

07:57But rest assured,

07:59our hard, barren rock of a planet would continue in its orbit.

08:03Oh well.

08:03Thank you very much.

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