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An Italian astronomer has explained that the supermassive black holes have masses millions, even billions of times larger than those of the Sun, and that they reach enormous proportions by swallowing matter and merging with other black holes .
In an animated video of TED-Ed titled "Could the Earth be swallowed by a black hole?", Fabio Pacucci, a postdoctoral fellow at Yale, explains that a supermassive black hole works as a "cosmic vacuum cleaner with the ability to infinite, "erasing everything in its path due to the huge gravitational field.
"Nothing, not even light, can move fast enough to escape the gravitational pull of a black hole as soon as it crosses a certain limit, called the horizon of events. The black hole is millions or billions of times larger than that of our Sun and its event horizon can reach several billion kilometers, "he said.
Pacucci explained that if a black hole of stellar mass passed along Neptune, the Earth's orbit would be significantly changed, "with catastrophic results". However, this type of black hole does not cause as much concern as the supermassive black holes in the center of the galaxies.
"Our solar system is in stable orbit around a supermassive black hole that is at the center of the Milky Way at a safe distance of 25,000 light-years. But that could change. If our galaxy clashes with another, the Earth could be projected towards the center of the galaxy, close enough to the supermassive black hole to be finally engulfed.
"In fact, a collision with the Andromeda galaxy is expected to occur in 4 billion years, which may not be good news for our planet," he added.
At the same time, the astronomer pointed out that black holes are not just "agents of destruction", but also play a key role in forming galaxies.
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