• Question: does a black hole have a outward motion instead of sucking everything into oblivion? is that why the black hole near us hasn't destroyed us yet

    Asked by supersonic7c to Anne, Beth, COLFlight, Jon, Tom on 15 Oct 2015. This question was also asked by Swetha Kalaimani, Barry_Mubarack.
    • Photo: Beth Healey

      Beth Healey answered on 15 Oct 2015:

      Hi supersonic7c,

      Fortunately there are no black holes near us 🙂

      Although a black hole can emit particles it mostly sucks everything into oblivion!

    • Photo: Columbus Flight Directors

      Columbus Flight Directors answered on 15 Oct 2015:

      Simon: As Beth said, there are no black holes close to the Earth. The closest is probably about 3,000 light years away! Although black holes suck pretty much everything into oblivion that cannot escape its gravitational field, instella gas that is sucked in will also emit X-ray radiation jets along the polar axis of the black hole, due to the heating effect of the gas particles caught in such an intense gravitational field. Check out an artists impression of what this looks like:

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