08. What are the chances of falling into or being sucked into a black hole? (A K2S Question)
From The Space Library
Actually, even with black holes, gravity rules! So, black holes do not suck in matter like some cosmic vacuum cleaner—their enormous concentration of mass results in a warping or bending of space in their vicinity (according to Einstein's theory of relativity). In other words, objects coming close to a moderate-sized black hole would behave normally by going into orbit around it according to the force of gravity exerted by the black hole. Only if you came closer than a certain well-defined distance would the force of gravity deviate from what would be predicted by a simple application of Newton's law.
Answer provided by Jim Zebrowski
Question and Answer extracted from the book Kids to Space - by Lonnie Schorer
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