There is a black hole in the milky way,they say it's not "feeding",but how is that possible with planets/stars

Question

Up there is what I meant to finish with,but I ran out of room. can it ever "feed" again?

Answer 1

it might be feeding off star near by but how can we tell for sure

Answer 2

Black holes can only "feed" if matter falls into them.  

Black holes have gravity, same as any object of comparable mass.  They do not "suck" stuff in.

The stars near the centre of our Galaxy are in orbit around this big mass.  As long as they maintain their orbit, they do not fall in.

Same as Earth around the Sun.  It is exactly the same principle.

Over the life of our Galaxy, there probably was a lot of objects on chaotic orbits and they probably fell in (or were ejected).  What is left is whatever was (or ended up) on stable orbits.

Answer 3

I really don't like the term "feeding". Black holes do not "feed" any more than planets or stars feed. The popular notion that gravity of a black hole is different than gravity of a regular star or planet is really misplaced. Only at impossibly close distances do the strange relativity effects become important. At any reasonable distance from the black hole, it is just like a star or planet. Its gravity can keep planets or other stars orbiting it, and any matter that happens to fall into it is really no different than the matter that falls to Earth from space all the time. Meteors that fall on Earth are just as trapped here as a planet falling into a black hole would be there. And you wouldn't say Earth is "feeding" on meteors would you?

So when they say it is not "feeding" they just mean there is no evidence that matter is falling into it. That is just because there isn't any matter close to it or on a course to fall into it. But there ARE stars orbiting around it that have been followed as they orbit, so we know how massive the black hole is by the speed and distance of these orbiting stars, just like we know the mass of the Sun based on the speed and distance of the planets orbiting it.

Answer 4

It feeds when something comes nearby.  There was a report of a light echo that suggested it ate something the size of Mercury about 50 years ago.  It will feed again.  But it's unlikely that it will have enough material to act like a quasar again.  It likely did that in it's relative youth.

Answer 5

A poster above mentioned this but perhaps this will help you think about it.

Black Holes do not "suck" stuff in.  They are simply a mass like any other mass (albeit and incredibly dense mass).

So, if someone could magic our sun into a black hole absolutely nothing would change as regards the orbits of the planets.  The sun's mass is still there and it has the same effect whether it is a little black hole or big star.  The planets would continue in their obits as always.

In the center of the galaxy the black hole there has vacuumed up everything nearby it could and is now idle.  However, there are a lot of stars and things clumped up in the center of the galaxy and their gravitational interactions are complex pushing and nudging from many different directions.  Occasionally a star's orbit may be adjusted enough to wander to the black hole at the center and the black hole gobbles it up.  This is very rare occurrence though.

Answer 6

they do expect it to start feeding again, but not for millions of years.

Black holes often go through several "feeding" and "resting" stages