• Question: If there were a black Hole, How would you stop it? If there isn't any way, Why?

    Asked by Nintega21 to Deborah, Euan, Maheen, Rob, Stu on 21 Jun 2016.
    • Photo: Deborah Prunty

      Deborah Prunty answered on 21 Jun 2016:

      There are lots of blackholes in the universe. There is one in the centre of our galaxy, the milkyway.

      Blackholes are points of massively intense intense gravity. The pull into them is so powerful that nothing can escape, not even light. I don’t know how we’d stop being pulled into one if we were to be caught up in its field of effect, it would take an impossible amount of energy to escape.

    • Photo: Euan Allen

      Euan Allen answered on 21 Jun 2016:

      Hi Nintega21, great question.

      Like Deborah said, there are lots of black holes in the universe that exist,. and we even have one right at the centre of the milky way.

      There are currently no known ways of destroying or stopping a black hole at the push of a button. However, black holes do very slowly evaporate (loose mass), which is one of Stephen Hawking’s most famous scientific discoveries. Due to special quantum effects at the edge of the black hole (the event horizon), black holes slowly emit radiation that we call Hawking radiation, which results in them loosing mass. So theoretically, if you really wanted to get rid of a black hole, all you have to do is wait around – albeit for a very very very long time!

    • Photo: Rob Stanley

      Rob Stanley answered on 22 Jun 2016:

      I’ll just add that luckily there don’t seem to be any black holes near us!

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