What's in the core of the Galaxy?

Question

I was told there's a blackhole in the center of our Galaxy. I've also seen many computerised models of the Galaxy on tv and magazines. most of these models show the galactic core as a bright and yellowish cloud. problem is, I thought blackholes are black...

also, a more confusing one: For as much as i know blackholes suck things into them. does that mean our solar system, which is right now still pretty far from the center, will eventually (like say after 10^10 years) end up in the Galactic core as well? or, ok maybe it just provides centripetal force so we arent getting sucked into it, but what if one day the rotation of the galaxy suddenly slowed down, I mean, is that possible at all? and whats keeping the Galaxy rotating anyway?

Once again, if my memories didn't trick me, i remember once seeing reports about a galaxy far away from ours being sucked into a big huge blackhole, but how is that possible, if the center of the galaxies are blackholes too?

Answer 1

"...show the galactic core as a bright and yellowish cloud. problem is, I thought blackholes are black..."

The colored clouds you've seen are dust and gases *between* us and the center of our galaxy, including the super-massive black hole that lies there.

"...does that mean our solar system, which is right now still pretty far from the center, will eventually (like say after 10^10 years) end up in the Galactic core as well?..."

No, we'll never end up at the galactic core. Even if we moved at the speed of light it would take at least 30,000 years to make the trip. More importantly is to understand that gravity, even from black holes, weakens by a factor of four for every doubling of the distance from its source. The gravitational tug from the central black hole at a range of some 30,000 light years is too small to even measure.

"...i remember once seeing reports about a galaxy far away from ours being sucked into a big huge blackhole, but how is that possible, if the center of the galaxies are blackholes too?..."

What you may have seen a report on is two galaxies colliding, a fairly common occurrence. In fact our own Milky Way is heading for a collision with the Andromeda Galaxy (M31)

About black holes colliding, that too is possible. Astronomers theorize that such an event would simply result in a single black hole with more mass.

Answer 2

Most galaxies are anchored by Super Massive Black Holes. The inner material continually feeds the SMBH ( some times referred as the great attractor). Black holes emit two powerful jet at the opposite pole ends as they feed. If a black hole is in vacant art of space, they emit hawking radiation. Therefore, over time they evaporate away. What the process is; virtual particles appear and disappear all the time. If this happens near the event horizon of a black hole one particle falls in the other escapes as hawking radiation. By the time we would be in danger of being swallowed up. The universe will experience the big rip in approx 33 billion yrs +. How ever in about 6 billion yrs we will crash into Andromeda watch out for the fireworks