Is it possible for a blackhole to eat up earth? And, what is a blackhole? Can somebody explain this to me?

I don't think that there are any blackholes close enough to 'eat Earth'. But yes..a blackhole could do just that. I think a blackhole is a star with gravity so intense that it literally pulls everything into itself...even its own light cannot escape the gravity.

Well, if our sun exploded then doesn't it turn into a blackhole?http://www.xs4all.nl/~mke/blackhole.htm

our sun cant become a black hole, not sure the reason why but i think it is to big and it has something to do with electron avoidance which prevents the sun from collapsing enough

a black hole is a dead star that colapsed on itself that has such powerful gravitational pull that not even light can escape it, however black holes do evaporate

but also, during a star's life cycle, not only does the color and heat change, but also the size, so the sun being too big might be true for now, but not later one when it begins the latter process of actually dying...so it might be possible that in fact...our sun could end up as a black hole.
But of course, we would all be dead anyway by the time that happens....

well actually that isnt correct, our sun is the size that it is at its estimated age meaning we can predict its size changes, which in essense means we can determine if the sun or any star for that matter (as long as we know the age) if it has potential to become a black hole


its actually a pretty popular belief that the sun will grow in size completly engulfing mercury, venus, and earth (red giant?) before it begins to shirnk down to its dead state(brown dwarf?)


*im not to sure if those are the correct terms (red giant, brown dwarf)

You're right, the sun will not become a black hole, because it isn't massive enough and therefore doesn't have the required heavy elements that make a star into a black hole.
Our sun will turn into a red giant, then cool into a white dwarf, then eventually a black dwarf.

The only thing I wanna know is: if your planet is destroyed by a black hole, would you feel it?

why wouldnt you? the planet as well as everything on it would feel the effect of being ripped apart

Man.

Wouldn't it be over so quick you wouldn't feel the pain though?

As you get closer to the black hole, the tidal gravitational forces of the black hole will deform the planet, and its inhabitants. Matter will stretch and begin to break down as it gets closer. Two things I question about this process, which I don't have an answer to:
1. Will your nerve endings deform so as you don’t feel pain?
2. Will you die before or after you begin to stretch?

I suppose the effect of the black hole on our sun(which keeps us alive) would determine a lot regarding if we would still be alive as we get pulled in.

Wouldn't we all die way before that from floods and the disintegration of the atmosphere?

I think you're right. It would be interesting to see a computer model of it

A blackhole is incredibly dense-imagine the weight of the earth in a single point.. It is so dense that not even light can escape
It is possible for A blackhole to 'eat up' earth but deffinately not in our lifetime
Our sun has exploded once-it used to have a much greater mass-this is shown by the higher elemants on the sun such as nitrogen
Our sun does not have a great enough mass to become black hole and even if it did it wouldnt collapse under the influence of gravity for a long time
Our sun will most probably become a red giant then a white dwarf etc

O.K. you guys should GOOGLE Black Hole. Then you can also look it up on the NASA website. (if you think they are a reliable source for Aerospace physics and stuff). I just did a report on it for a class last semester (I got an "A") so here it goes, as short and sweet as possible:
A black hole, is not a hole (and as far as anyone can tell, the wormhole theory no matter how fun, does not hold water).
It is a star which has become infinitely dense, so dense that light cannot escape.
The schwarzchild radius is the point around the black hole from which only light can travel fast enough to escape.
Our sun theoretically could not become a black hole, it is too small. This assumption is based on the black holes currently known to exist, at such places as Cygnus-1.
If our sun became a black hole, the earth would NOT be sucked in, this is because the schwarzchild radius, discussed above, is not any larger than the gravitational field of the star which created the black hole. In other words, we would not be sucked into the black hole of our sun, because we are not close enough to be sucked into the sun as it is now, so dont worry. Also if the sun were to turn into a black hole, you would die long before you found out what it was like to be sucked in. Remeber from fourth grade science, without the heat of the sun, the earth would fall well below the -200c degree mark, cold enough to kill everything and everyone on the planet.

Really??
I was under the impression that a true black hole has no physical mass.

Where did you find that information? The description I read was that it has obtained what can only be described as "infinite mass". A black (which i will inevitably spell as 'blakc') hole becomes that way becuase it doesnt loose any of its outer shell or inner core. The hydrogen/helium combustion eventually runs out of one component, the remaining component rather than exploding, and ejecting into space, becomes incredibly tightly packed, like if you were to keep pushing foam into a trash can. It becomes so tightly packed that it eliminates all possible space that resides in between the individual molecules of hydorgen/helium. this is the point at which it is considered a "black hole". therefore yes, a blakc hole does have mass, because it is made out of molecules, the same molecules that made the star.
First it is really important that everyone remember that the Cygnus-1 (maybe cygnus-x) was the first time that we have EVER "seen" the creation of a black hole, 99% of information about black holes is speculated, based on THEORIES, no one has ever experienced it first hand or been able to replicate the conditions, even on a computer. We base the theories of black holes on information we have gathered about our surroundings. However, black holes seem to be a unique feature of the universe, the cause and effects of them are still not really understood, no matter who wrote the theory.
Sci-Fi has greatly warped the perception of the black hole. The only way for something to have no mass, is for it to not be made of anything! This is quite impossible, seeing as how if you are not made of anything, you dont exist. Also remember, A BLACK HOLE IS NOT A HOLE!!!!! thats just an innapropriate name assigned to a misunderstood object!!!
I wanted to add this link for you:
black hole info
this has a good, easy to understand explanation of how a blakc hole works. For those of you who dont want to read it, it says that the three measurable properties of a black hole (the way we "see it") are:
Mass
Electric Charge
Rate of Rotation

worm holes dont have to do with black holes exclusivly so worm holes can still be actual fact, they have to do with spacetime folding over, think of it like a piece of paper, this piece of paper represents space time take a pin and poke it on the paper, that pin is you, now fold that paper in half and push the pin through to the other side, that pin is you traveling through a worm hole, theoretically we can create a worm hole and hold it open with exotic matter

on another note, even if the sun had the potential to become a black hole, it would envelop earth before it got that far along its life cycle via becomming a red giant

and one last thing, i think it is really cool that you can be standing right at the threshold and be fine and then take one step closer and be torn apart

no my strong point in science. black holes if i am correct, is like someone said already, if our sun blows up then a black hole will form.

there are black holes all over the universe constantly pulling space "things". for instance, imagine you and i were black holes, we are both holding onto two ropes and pull opposite from each other and it seems like nothing is moving. what does that explain??? it explains the fact that because there are many opposing unseen forces pulling on (let's say) earth. black holes possibly "suck" in things which lead to somewhere. if it "suck" like a vaccum, then that must mean there is some form of gravity or energy that resides in it.

Ummm…no. Let me explain. All stars fuse hydrogen atoms into helium through the process of nuclear fusion. For massive stars that will eventually turn into a black hole, once the hydrogen is spent, the helium will fuse into carbon. When the helium is spent, carbon is fused into heavier elements such as oxygen, neon, silicon, magnesium, sulfur and iron. Once the core has turned to iron, it can burn no longer. Since it can’t burn anymore, there is no longer an outward force to balance the gravitational pull, and the star collapses under it’s own gravitation. This causes the iron core to become so hot and dense that protons and electrons merge to form neutrons. The outer layers will collapse further into the neutron core, which the huge amount of heat will cause an explosion called ‘super nova’ thereby releasing energy and material into space. Only the outer layers are blown off, as the core collapses into a singularity and a black hole is formed.

Excellent explanation. Does the core then at some point as it condenses to a singularity pull the material of the 'super nova' back into itself?

i do not know for sure, but im guessing no, as when the upper layer explodes out it dispenses through out the universe, out of the black holes gravitational pull, like dropping a glass with an ice cube inside, the ice cube remains but the glass shatters, think of the glass as the upper layer, and the ice as the iron core, of coarse you'd have to imagine the glass shattering and shooting away from the ice at a more powerful and more fast pace

a black hole and the singularity is how stephen hawkings explained the big bang. " imagin time reversed " because All energy of the star is compressed. Then imagin it exploding




In todays standard theory a black hole is thought to be remnant of a large star that has collapsed inward under its own gravity once the nuclear fuel is expended, ending the outward radiation pressure that was conteracting the inward pull of its gravity.

The collapse is believed to first crush the stars atoms , destroying all atomic structures and leaving only a super dense mass of subatomic particles clumped together. This is known as a neutron star to indicate that it is now composed entirely of subatomic particles instead of atoms, and if massive enough, its gravity is believed to further crush even these subatomic particles out of existence.

The singularity of it is far smaller than a single atom, where all the matter of the original star is now compressed as pure energy!, while maintaining the same gravity as the original star.

according to that^ the singularity is pure energy, i subscribe to the string theory, and string theory is just that, that everything in the universe is composed of tiny strings of energy, the only thing that differentates one thing from another is the way that string vibrates, it would make sense then that the gravity is so strong in a black hole that it compresses its matter back down to what it is made of, a string, a string of vibrating energy, now through string theory there is another theory of how the big bang "banged" and it is that it wasnt actually a bang, but a tap or a push, when one of our multiverses planes hit another plane causing this eruption of space which is our known universe, this would hold true now with how we percieve our universe

seeking is correct, in that the materiel exploding from the star is just released into space.

Nobody really knows what happens in a singularity. As mentioned, a singularity only expresses in terms mass, charge and rotation. What it was is no longer atoms, molecules.

Some theories and physics say that a blackhole is a Big bang creating new universes. I choose to believe that bec some* stars become holes then the holes becme something else. I know that each galaxy has a blackhole. Not entirely black mind you.
In short, blackholes are doors to a new Time. An infinity of Clocks..some behind, some ahead..this is where I envy Albert Einstein bec he had this unusual ability to see the universe in space-time. Check google on Alberts brain and the national geographic (GEO) channel. Anyhoo, then we ask what is on the other side of the blackhole.. its quite simple..you're on the other side. Each galaxy have this hole, and particles like you, is circling, falling, till to the time that Time stands infinitely still..then Pow!..a universe is born. Remember it was a particle that created the universe that we see objectivley today. There is an periodic Table in each universe which I call foam.
One night, I was observing towards the galactic center with my Meade to the best that I can. This thought came to mind that 'why one big bang, there could many,thousands.. billions..'. Trillions? If u dont know the question to ask God. Ask Him what Time is it. He wont know..this is beside the point.......I gtg and take care.