Hungry black holes are MUCH ‘closer to Earth than previously thought’, NASA warns
Greedy galactic gobblers could swallow Earth whole and then chow down on the entire solar system without pausing for breath
Black holes are the most destructive force in the universe, with the power to swallow up stars, galaxies and pretty much everything else.
Now NASA has published scary new research which suggests humanity is living "much closer" to one of these galactic gobblers than anyone ever expected.
Astronomers have spotted a "stealth black hole" which has all the grim power of its easily visible cousins, but lives a much quieter life and is therefore harder to notice.
The discovery could mean "tens of thousands to millions of these black holes could exist within our Galaxy, about three to thousands of times as many as previous studies have suggested", NASA wrote.
“Unless we were incredibly lucky to find one source like this in a small patch of the sky, there must be many more of these black holes in our Galaxy than we used to think,” saidArash Bahramian from the University of Alberta.
“Some of these undiscovered black holes could be closer to the Earth than we previously thought,” added Robin Arnason from Western University, Canada.
“However there’s no need to worry as even these black holes would still be many light years away from Earth.”
If Planet Earth was unlucky enough to come across a black hole during its travels through space, it would be sucked in and torn apart.
But humanity's home planet would just be an appetiser for a hungry hole, which could also wolf down the Sun and all the rest of the planets in the solar system without pausing for breath.
Of course, we have a good idea of where our solar system is going as it spins around the Milky Way and it doesn't look like we're headed into the maw of a black hole just yet.
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Yet at some point, the entire universe could end up being eaten by black holes, according to a theory which suggests the universe will expand forever.
If this is true, all the stars in the sky will eventually stop shining and either turn into black holes or be swallowed up by them.
After a long, long time, even the holes will disappear, leaving behind a infinite, featureless hell that's basically just a whole lot of nothing.
And that happy scenario will last forever.
Sleep tight everyone.
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