How can some black holes be "feeding" and others not

Question

How can some black holes be "feeding" and others not

Answer 1

I am puzzled as to what you mean by black holes "feeding".  They are not alive and do not feed.  If something gets inside the event horizon of a black hole, it will get pulled in by the intense gravity.  

Answer 2

A black hole is ALWAYS feeding if there is anything within range of its' gravitational forces. The mass of the Black Hole detemines that range.

Answer 3

They may have already fed and are looking to attract new material.

Answer 4

It just depends on if there's anything nearby to fall into a black hole.  Remember, the total mass (gravity) of a black hole isn't any higher than when it was a regular star.  Anything that was in a stable orbit before should still be in a stable orbit.  It's just the stuff nearby that was going to fall in anyway that gets "sucked into" the black hole.  

Answer 5

They are all feeding.  They are all soaking up all the photons and any matter that passes close enough to be affected by their gravity.  

Answer 6

Black holes are pretty small---even the one in the center of the Milky Way is smaller than the orbit of Mercury.  For stuff to fall in, it has to be on exactly the right orbit---otherwise, it will just go around, like the planets going around the Sun and not falling in.  In a normal galaxy, all the stuff on orbits that would cause it to fall into the black hole will have already have fallen in, long ago.  The only way to get new stuff to fall in is to perturb the orbits, for example by a close encounter with another galaxy, or by a buildup of gas near the center, leading to a magnetohydrodynamic instability.

Answer 7

what?a

Answer 8

If there's no matter around a black hole, then it's not feeding. If the black hole is moving and if there is material around, then it's "feeding."

Answer 9

There may not be anything within the gravitational pull of the non-feeding ones to feed on.  While strong, their pull is not infinitly reaching.

Answer 10

Define feeding???

Answer 11

obviously the ones that arent eeding are the ones that arent hungry. The ones that are feeding are the hungry ones.

Answer 12

Well if you don't like them what does it matter if they are eating or not....oh wait...blackholes.  Hehe.  Sorry, I thought you said something else.

Answer 13

all black holes have gravitational pulls and energy

Answer 14

A black hole is said to be "feeding" when there's matter around falling into it.  This is detectable by the X-rays given off by the material just before it's consumed.

A black hole that isn't around any material *isn't* feeding - and, except for it's intense gravitational pull, offers no clues that it even exists.