LHC Question: If black holes sucked everything up wouldnt we be dead by now?

Question

Ive heard a few people say that the LHC will form a black hole. They then go on to claim that black holes suck everything up.

So is this true about the LHC and black holes?

A - its not powerful enough to form one

B - Theres a massive black hole in the center of the milky way, so if they sucked up everything, why isnt the milky way dead yet?

And whats the deal with these "stranglets" everyones going on about?

Answer 1

A is true,

The possibility of a micro black hole being formed is minute and even if it is formed, it gets disintegrated almost immediately thereby causing no disaster.

for B:

the massive black holes exert their gravitational pull for only a certain area around it.  only when an object reaches the even horizon ( a certain area around the black hole, like a circular outline. Nothing inside this outline is visible to anything outside it), there is absolutely no chance of its return.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Event_horiz...

In the case of planets that are far- far away, there is very little pull of the black hole's gravity on it for it to get sucked in.

Stranglets are supposedly a candidate for dark matter. No one has ever seen it since no one yet knows what dark matter looks like or about any of its properties.

look up the link :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strangelet



that is about all i know, hope it helped.

N T

Answer 2

There are two problems with your "take" on the issue (I'm no expert so I defer to anyone who claims to be - I haven't heard from any but the politicians who run the LHC programs)

Problem 1.  This particular configuration has not been tried before.  The argument goes that since there are cosmic rays hitting the Earth's atmosphere that are occasionally as energetic and since we are still here, this is conclusive evidence that there is no risk.  My counter (again I'm no expert) is that a micro black hole forming at 20 miles up in the atmosphere might (stress might) behave differently than one starting off in rock under the Earth.  The theoretical (and definitely not proven) evaporation mechanism everyone is talking about might not work the same above some critical density and/or velocity.  Or it might not work at all, we have no proof of it working. (Obviously, since we have only "some" proof of the existence of black holes...)

Problem #2.  Where did people get the idea that black holes suck matter into them? No.  It doesn't work like that.  The gravity of a black hole is NO stronger than a similar mass that is not a black hole.  The difference is that very very close to the black hole the gravity gets so strong that regular matter collapses and becomes part of the hole.  But what do we mean by very close?  We mean close to the event horizon.  The event horizon for a micro black hole will be smaller than the diameter of an atom. (In other words, the event horizon for a given mass is much smaller than the volume of the mass (of regular matter) - the event horizon for a bit of mass the weight [mass] of an atom is much smaller than the nucleus of the atom).  So for matter to collapse into a black hole, it has to get closer than matter normally gets to itself.  (remember, most of matter is empty space).  The gravity of a micro black hole is not going to be any more measurable than the same amount of energy/mass; Which compared to the energy in a pound of water, is very very very very small.

If the LHC makes a black hole (unlikely from what we understand now - but not impossible because we don't understand everything) the thing will be so tiny that it will have no effect on anything.  If the black hole is stable and doesn't evaporate it will orbit the Earth. its velocity will determine its orbit.  It may become charged depending on how many electrons and protons crash into it.  Its orbit could very possibly be below the Earth's surface.  With every atom it crashes into it gains that itsy bitsy bit of  weight (and gives of a little radiation).  Probably it will slow down and eventually fall to the center of the earth and slowly matter will flow into it.  The matter will radiate some energy as it falls and the area around this tiny thing will become so hot that it gets harder and harder for matter to get close so its growth will slow way down.  Eventually (millions? of)  years from now it will have eaten the whole Earth.  Whoever is then watching from Mars will think it is a great show, but will know not to be worried since the gravitational pull is EXACTLY the same as it was from the old Earth.  Now, of course they'll see a little more fireworks where the Earth was.

Thats about the worse case.  But since there are bunches of balls of rocks around that cosmic rays have crashed into, none of them have apparently be converted into mini black holes, the chances of the black hole in Europe behaving differently seems small.  Of course, we should think about dark matter.  Is there any possibility that these micro black holes are where the missing 22% of the matter of the universe is hiding?  Maybe there is a possibility ????  Sweet dreams.

Answer 3

Black holes only suck stuff in within reach of their gravitational field.  Things with velocity may never be accelerated enough in that direction to get sucked in.  The black hole that may be created by the LHC is so tiny it will only exist for a moment and pull from a distance measured in microns.  

Answer 4

Even if the LHC could make a black hole it would be microscopic (a class of black hole) which would only exist for a very brief time and then it would give off its energy.

Blach holes don't suck everything up, they don't have infinite gravity until something gets past the event horizon.  So it's very easy just to orbit the black hole like our entire galaxy is doing.

Answer 5

The black hole in the center of our galaxy is probably gobbling up huge amounts of matter, but only matter that gets close enough and is heading toward the hole.

In the same way that the sun holds the planets in their orbits, the gravity of the mass at the center of the galaxy helps hold the stars in orbit around the center. There probably were many bits of matter that fell into the sun near the birth of the solar system, but the matter that remains is mostly all in a stable orbit around the sun, Just as the Earth or Jupiter aren't plunging rapidly into the sun, neither is most of the material of the galaxy falling into the center.