Should We Be Afraid of Black Holes? | Teen Ink

Should We Be Afraid of Black Holes?

May 24, 2013
By Pavel Kargel BRONZE, Reno, Nevada
Pavel Kargel BRONZE, Reno, Nevada
1 article 0 photos 0 comments

Many people are fascinated with space and all its wonders mainly because everything about space such as black holes, to a normal person is so unknown. All people really know about black holes are misconceptions that are shown in sci-fi movies such as Star Wars and Star Trek. Many people have heard about black holes, but they don't know much about them, which causes them to fear them. People tend to over estimate the power of a black hole and they fear that they are a threat to us. Even though black holes are a powerful force and can swallow planets, they are no danger to Earth and our solar system.


There are a lot of misconceptions about black holes that cause people to fear them. One big misconception that makes people fear black holes is that they move and destroy everything in their radius. That is not true because black holes do not move, they are stationary. Another misconception is that our sun can turn into a black hole and devour Earth with its great gravitational force. This is completely impossible as the sun is way to small to turn into a black hole. Even if it somehow turned into one, Earth would fall into complete darkness but nothing else would change as we would keep orbiting the sun as if nothing happened. Many people also believe that black holes just suck anything that comes near them. Although that is true, you would have to be within ten miles for the black hole to swallow you so Earth is completely safe as we are 93 million miles away from the sun.


Some people know that black holes are invisible, hence the name “black” hole, so they wonder how could we even know if a black hole is in our solar system that is growing and could cause us danger. Scientists can “see” black holes by two different ways. They can observe the planets and gases around a black hole to see if they are orbiting an invisible object. Another way they can tell, which is a little bit more complicated, involves radio waves and x-rays. When a gas falls into a black hole it is heated up to an extreme temperature that gives off radio waves and x- rays and these waves can be observed by astronomers. So, even though we cant see a black hole, we know exactly where one could be, and there's definitely no black holes in our solar system threatening our lives.



So, after getting a background on black holes and their behaviors, no one should ever be afraid of a black hole endangering Earth and our solar system. They face us no real harm as there is no way one could appear in our solar system. Many people fear black holes and we need to put an end to this. We need to simply educate people about black holes and make them realize that the way t.v. shows portray black holes is one huge misconception. People need to be familiar with our situation in the solar system and realize that a black hole devouring us is absolutely absurd and impossible.



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