alt Hacker NewsThe bad news is that if a black hole is not primordial, the minimum mass is high enough (2-4 M_sol) that it doesn't so much "pass through our system" as "we pass through its".
I'm not 100% confident, but rough approximation suggests that a close approach of even 5 AU even at typical interstellar velocities might have an unplesant climate impact by increasing the eccentricity of our orbit.
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14u2c • today at 3:22 PM
5AU seems incredibly close. That's inside the orbit of jupiter. How would it not destabilize the entire system?
mynegation • today at 2:57 PM
Did you mean 5 AU or 5 ly? 5 AU at 2-4 M sol intuitively seems like a complete and utter havoc.
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Déstabilise orbits - definitely, but the same would be true of a star or other celestial body.
But our risk of getting sucked into a black hole is really tiny. (Although personally if I had a chance to enter a black hope, I would. I’m just naturally curious.)