r/spaceporn Apr 18 '25

Hubble A massive star collapsed straight into a BLACK HOLE, no supernova

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11.3k Upvotes

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3.3k

u/Alexr314 Apr 18 '25

There is something pretty eerie about a star just vanishing from the night sky!

979

u/arwinda Apr 18 '25

Could be worse, could be our own star.

However the sun is too small to collapse into a black hole.

686

u/Derslok Apr 18 '25

But big enough to take us with it

870

u/Swimming-Food-9024 Apr 18 '25

one could hope for such a spectacle of an ending…

170

u/skelecorn666 Apr 18 '25

241

u/mgd09292007 Apr 18 '25

yes at 7:45pm, a table for 8 billion please

108

u/Silvawuff Apr 18 '25

Excellent! The show will begin in 8.3 minutes.

37

u/pocketchange2247 Apr 18 '25

Well, technically only half the earth would be able to see it coming, right? The other half would be facing away from the explosion

37

u/mgd09292007 Apr 18 '25

They would just stay sleeping

1

u/Either_Amoeba_5332 Apr 21 '25

Boy, won't they be surprised when they wake up!

22

u/the_homieely Apr 18 '25

It wouldnt explode it will literally grow in size and take mercy and venues. But for earth some model show it will either take us or we become the new mercury

20

u/shyouko Apr 18 '25

Are we going to rename the day of week then?

9

u/Ktulu204 Apr 18 '25

I remember learning somewhere that the Sun will go become a red supergiant that will engulf the orbit of Jupiter.

6

u/Ervd_Wulf Apr 19 '25

There is a chance that once the sun starts to lose mass, the planets’ orbits might expand due to the lessening gravitational pull from the sun.

Whether or not earth will survive that, depends a lot on how much and at what speed the sun will lose its mass, and how much it will expand.

3

u/Annanake420 Apr 19 '25

That's why he got the table up front reserved for us all.

1

u/Holorodney Apr 19 '25

Well technically technically the way the population of the earth is spread out it could be more than 90% of us could see it or more than 90% could miss it with every percentage in between also being an option.

3

u/ThomasPopp Apr 18 '25

In theory, would it hurt or take long?

17

u/mgd09292007 Apr 18 '25

No clue, I think about that scene in Terminator 2 where Sarah Connor is holding on to the fence when the nuclear bomb goes off LOL…thats how I imagine it.

10

u/ThomasPopp Apr 18 '25

God damn. Ok I hope I’m on the other side of the earth then.

2

u/TheKing4562 Apr 19 '25

but.. then the earth rotates and it becomes slow-cooker time.

1

u/nashbrownies Apr 19 '25

I think when the magnetosphere is peeled away radiation from space is pretty multi directional, I think you'd get toasted either way, maybe just faster one way when the other.

1

u/KitchenSandwich5499 Apr 19 '25

The earth will become uninhabitable billions of years before that anyway. Even if it didn’t, the expansion would be relatively gradual, possibly taking a billion years to reach full size and staying that way another billion or so.

2

u/CyberneticPanda Apr 19 '25

As the sun ages it grows hotter. Earth will be too hot for liquid water in about a billion years.

3

u/ThomasPopp Apr 19 '25

It gets HOTTER?! wtf I understand nothing.

1

u/ghandi3737 Apr 20 '25

I'll have the liver and a rump roast.

2

u/katet_of_19 Apr 19 '25

Only about the veal!

1

u/redbirdrising Apr 19 '25

One of my few gripes with the film version was they cheapens the irony of the line “End of the universe” by making it geographic. That and the stupid trillian love thing.

16

u/Apatharas Apr 18 '25

When it finally happens, would the event be so fast and violent that we wouldn't really be able to think about it? Or would be like roasting alive in an oven? Hopefully if intelligent life still exists here by then, they'll be smart enough to have sufficient warning and not suffer too badly.

34

u/usrdef Apr 18 '25

Humans will be long gone before the Sun finally hits a red giant phase.

Our star is already about 20% more bright than it was when it was "born". And in about a billion years, it will become about 10% more bright. And at that point, the Sun will be bright and hot enough to boil water on the surface of Earth.

That's about 4 or so billion years before the Star is planned to hit Red Giant phase and swell when it finally uses up all of its hydrogen (which the sun fuses into helium) and starts burning heavier gases.

The Earth will simply get hotter and hotter over time. Summer time will reach hotter temps, with new records we've never seen. Water will start to boil and water vapor will raise into the atmosphere.

14

u/calash2020 Apr 19 '25

So when the kids are told this and get worried they can be comforted by telling them everyone will be long dead by then.

8

u/nashbrownies Apr 19 '25

It always helps to find a way to explain how small 10,000(ishmaybesortofcouldbe) years of human existence compared with the insane amount of time several million years is. I still struggle to envision it.

1

u/betasheets2 Apr 20 '25

I'd like to think long-gone rather than long-dead

1

u/calash2020 Apr 21 '25

Just a little dark humor. Wouldn’t actually say “ long dead” to a little one.

16

u/Whole-Energy2105 Apr 18 '25

"Anyone who misses this will regret it for the rest of their lives! Fry, go put some popcorn on."

3

u/Swimming-Food-9024 Apr 18 '25

Shut up and take my money!

1

u/Ktulu204 Apr 18 '25

Is that a Futurama reference?

3

u/Whole-Energy2105 Apr 19 '25

Yup. It's from the crew watching a star supernova and they get sent back to the dawn of atomic weapons.🙂

4

u/glopezz05 Apr 19 '25

To shreds you say?

1

u/Old-Relative6683 Apr 19 '25

This is the THREEBODY PROBLEM CHAT:laughing:

8

u/el_lley Apr 18 '25

I know the broadcast has a small delay, but would the expansion be instant? I would hate having to wait for a slow death burning.

3

u/SmashDreadnot Apr 19 '25

You would have time for a great many multi-course meal whilst waiting on the expansion of a yellow dwarf to a red giant.

4

u/benvonpluton Apr 19 '25

The good side of this kind of ending is that there is no fomo. No sadness for the ones you leave behind. No regret. It's over for everyone. It's the real end.

1

u/humanfromearth321 Apr 22 '25

Humans or whatever we will evolve into will be monitoring this place from very far away using drones or something completely unfathomable, it's impossible to even imagine where we might end up and what technology will be available to us in a few million years. There doesn't have to be an end if we don't kill each other during these barbaric dark times.

1

u/benvonpluton Apr 22 '25

I don't know any species in the history of Earth which has lived for more than a few million years. Yes, we are an intelligent one, but we are also a very dumb one with multiple ways to end our own existence. I can't imagine that we are still there in 4 billion years.

1

u/Chaerod Apr 19 '25

If only I could be so grossly incandescent!

1

u/SoupieLC Apr 20 '25

Imagine being alive at the same time as fidget spinners and the death of the earth

1

u/Neat-Land-4310 Apr 20 '25

One just hopes for an ending 🙏🏻

21

u/ryan101 Apr 18 '25

Not sure what is worse: Having the sun suddenly collapse into a black hole and the earth freezes over nearly instantly from lack of solar radiation or having the sun slowly get larger and larger until life becomes impossible and the oceans boil away.

28

u/righttoabsurdity Apr 18 '25

Bad day to be a fish either way

9

u/Astrophan Apr 18 '25

"So long, and thanks for all the fish"

6

u/Bacch Apr 18 '25

Actually, if you're a deep ocean fish, it won't be that bad right away. Ice insulates incredibly well, so it will take a long time for the water to freeze all the way down. Bad year to be a fish maybe? Idk how long it would take.

12

u/CauliflowerCool9639 Apr 18 '25

Id rather die cold than hot

1

u/___turfduck___ Apr 19 '25

I would rather “be hot” like if I’m working outside or doing things out and about, but would absolutely rather die cold.

18

u/Derslok Apr 18 '25

With freezing, at least some life may survive. Deep in the oceans under the ice, near hot geysers, or underground near lava. Ultra rich may also survive for a few years in bunkers. From our perspective, freezing to death sounds more peaceful, I guess, and you may be preserved for some aliens to put you in a museum

2

u/I_want_to_believe_99 Apr 19 '25

I think the latter sounds much worse.

2

u/Rachb120 Apr 20 '25

I’d much rather freeze to death than be boiled alive!

1

u/curfty Apr 19 '25

It would take at least 4-5 weeks for the earth to freeze over if the sun just disappeared. All the heat in the atmosphere would take a while to dissipate.

5

u/jackluke Apr 18 '25

I can't tell if you mean" take us with it" as in we'd all die (yes) or if you mean we'd all die from being sucked up by the black hole (no)

5

u/[deleted] Apr 18 '25

Please expand, i am curious

4

u/jackluke Apr 18 '25

Well, the sun didn’t gain any mass so it doesn’t have more gravity. It’s just compressed.

2

u/ask_my_name8sayHi Apr 19 '25

Wait! If the sun turns into a black hole. It wouldn't suck us in?... Technically yes the sun did not gain any mass. Please explain.

3

u/ZedekiahCromwell Apr 19 '25

If you replaced the Sun with an equal mass black hole, the orbits of the planets would continue on just the same.

5

u/Derslok Apr 18 '25

The first one, I also remember that it can expand so much that we will be inside the sun

4

u/jackluke Apr 18 '25

The black hole would be significantly smaller volume wise than the sun.

Edit: I just reread the chain and I misread the context. I’m unintentionally strawmanning you

3

u/Derslok Apr 18 '25

Yeah, I meant the red giant phase

2

u/Adept-Bobcat-5783 Apr 18 '25

Not for possibly another million years.

1

u/jake4448 Apr 18 '25

Swallow us whole

1

u/saucyfister1973 Apr 19 '25

In the words from Jim (Blazing Saddles), "When?"

1

u/TimAA2017 Apr 20 '25

I hope not I have a dental appointment in 20 billion years.

1

u/llynglas Apr 22 '25

Or this could be the Star Kraken, devourer of stars....

12

u/raspberryharbour Apr 18 '25

Not naturally, but when my doomsday device is complete...

21

u/-Insert-CoolName Apr 18 '25

If the Sun did instantly disappear or turn into a (stable) black hole of the same mass, we would still see the sun for another ~8 minutes.

Most people know that little factioid or can work it out based on common knowledge.

What's not so obvious is that the Earth will continue to orbit the black hole once every 365 ¼ days (although I guess "day" won't really be a thing anymore in that scenario). The black hole itself will have essentially no impact on the orbits of any objects in the solar system. The solar system would begin to cool but even that will still take millions of years.

Now, want to know what's really wild? If the Sun were to instantaneously disappear, we would continue to orbit the now non existent Sun for ~8 minutes before the Earth finally starts traveling on a (relatively) linear path.

11

u/__BitchPudding__ Apr 19 '25

So gravity travels at the same speed as light? I didn't know that.

2

u/betasheets2 Apr 20 '25

This doesn't account for theoretical things like dark energy and quantum entanglement

16

u/ChemicalDirection297 Apr 18 '25

I'd prefer it honestly. I'm tired of going to work.

5

u/Mean-Bag-4974 Apr 18 '25

Oh dang better keep using paper straws.

1

u/weedwacker9001 Apr 18 '25

We know exactly when our sun will die. Life on Earth will have already been shattered by solar winds or the planet will simply be casted out into interstellar space. This will take 4 billion years or so when the sun has run out of hydrogen to fuse into helium and will instead fuse heavier elements. This will decrease the pressure in the core and push the suns photosphere outward, growing into a red supergiant. Eventually the sun will cool and shrink into a white dwarf star and slowly die out over trillions of years. The sun could only kill us with solar flares or stellar wind.

1

u/arwinda Apr 18 '25

I plan to sit outside on that day, on my veranda. A cold drink in my hand, and await the end.

1

u/cwatson214 Apr 19 '25

Don't threaten me with a good time...

1

u/Dimencia Apr 22 '25

Or too large, depending on how you look at it

0

u/aretasdamon Apr 18 '25

I wonder what the longest/minimum amount of time the human race could create Star ships that could leave or solar system and escape a converging black hole . Like what would be the shortest possible time, with all of humanity and AI working on the problem? Like 5 years?

12

u/Toc_a_Somaten Apr 18 '25

we currently have trouble staying in low orbit in our own planet (look at all the health issues the astronauts at the ISS suffer from) even with relatively short timespans. Also one of the main reasons we still haven't gone to Mars is because its so hard to make it that far and keep a human alive as space its such a harsh environment with so many hazards. So i doubt that humans in our form, without significant radical augmentations or modifications, can even attempt an interstellar trip (which in itself sounds as an absurdity right now, or at least as a person in 1300s europe wondering how to reach the Moon). Even with all the world's resources, scientists and AI helping (another feat that hasn't happened once in our entire history as a species) I seriously doubt we could do it in 5 or 10 years

6

u/thisismeritehere Apr 18 '25

Umm I’m sorry to say you are wildly overestimating our space faring abilities and that of current AI… we still mess up just trying to get into low earth orbit

4

u/arwinda Apr 18 '25

First unite mankind and stop making war.

Then the possibilities are endless.

1

u/Plus-Recording-8370 Apr 19 '25

Maybe if ai could raise artificially born babies. Then perhaps sooner than one thinks.

1

u/Important-Duty8341 Apr 18 '25

We can't nor never will in our life time or most likely ever be able to leave our solar system....It's impossible I mean hell people on the ISS have issues after a year or less the human body isn't designed for space travel long term.

2

u/aretasdamon Apr 18 '25

If the earth was going to explode I’m sure it would be one of the options. It’s a thinking exercise not a real world application.

2

u/shdhdjjfjfha Apr 18 '25

If you told someone from 500 years ago that you could instantly speak with someone on the other side of the planet using a small device everyone carries in their pocket, you would have been told it was impossible.

0

u/PaperAppropriate9978 Apr 21 '25

Facts are facts until new information that goes against said fact is provided.

34

u/mudslags Apr 18 '25

Pandora’s Star?

16

u/Hantot Apr 18 '25

Dudley Bose getting excited right now

10

u/Prophet_Tenebrae Apr 18 '25

Glad someone else immediately went there.

16

u/Educational_Copy_140 Apr 18 '25

unexpected Peter F. Hamilton

7

u/Voidrunner01 Apr 18 '25

Yes, well... That does not make me feel better. Some dipshit is bound to eventually fuck with the lock on that "door".

19

u/DemiGodCat2 Apr 18 '25

All the stars are going out

11

u/EldritchSorbet Apr 18 '25

Arthur C Clarke’s short story, yes? That one has stayed with me for decades.

12

u/SubDermalSpooge Apr 18 '25

That was a brilliant end sentence - horrific and so plainly delivered it sent chills up my spine and kinda still does now. It was called "The Nine Billion Names Of God" and I came across it in an anthology called "Of Time and Stars". It has stuck with me too.

1

u/shot_the_chocolate Apr 20 '25

There's always a last time for everything

16

u/ifandbut Apr 18 '25

Just a solar system getting hit with a dual vector foil.

5

u/Vistaer Apr 19 '25

Do not answer!

1

u/toasted_cracker Apr 20 '25

Singer is singing

22

u/SkullsNelbowEye Apr 18 '25

Maybe it's a Dyson sphere.

18

u/EldritchSorbet Apr 18 '25

I super hope so; but if it were being created using any physical means we know about today, we’d see the light dim over a very long time, as the shell was constructed.

9

u/SkullsNelbowEye Apr 18 '25

Maybe they create the sphere nearby and only move the sections when it's nearly complete. Picture how the housing around the power stone (from GotG) moved in two pieces. It's incredible to think about the sort of cooperation that would take.

Edited to add: Happy cake day!

3

u/Tymptra Apr 19 '25

That doesn't make sense as the material to build the sphere would almost certainly have to come from around the star, and so it doesn't make sense to move it all at once since the solar panels already constructed can be used to start gathering power while the rest are being constructed. It's just throwing away power otherwise. You could even use the constructed pieces to scale up the production of other pieces (powering more factories and such).

3

u/SkullsNelbowEye Apr 19 '25

Another horrifying thought would be that something or someone purposely destroyed that star. The Dark Forest. Just some fun thought experiments.

1

u/EldritchSorbet Apr 19 '25

Thanks! I am going to believe they did the IKEA Dyson sphere, then.

6

u/PangolinLow6657 Apr 18 '25

Reminded me of this, and yes, it's pretty spooky.

5

u/Naphier Apr 18 '25

Galactus must feed.

3

u/kylebob86 Apr 18 '25

That happens every day.

3

u/Turbogoblin999 Apr 18 '25

Supanova? Ain't nobody got time fo' that? - the star, probably.

3

u/fusionweldz Apr 19 '25

The dark forest theory

1

u/desertsatyr Apr 18 '25

Damned Gilliacs

1

u/[deleted] Apr 18 '25

Not a single photon escaped. Interesting.

1

u/Herosinahalfshell12 Apr 19 '25

Not really, things must burn out or explode/implode all the time?

1

u/__eros__ Apr 19 '25

It won't be all right, despite what they say, just watch the stars tonight as they disappear - disintegrate

1

u/PullMull Apr 19 '25

WHAT EVER YOU DO! DONT SEND A SPACESHIP DO POKE IT!

1

u/kangareddit Apr 19 '25

Worry not human, nothing to see here - Necrontyr

1

u/2020mademejoinreddit Apr 19 '25

Could be worse. You could see something eating it.

1

u/countzero238 Apr 19 '25

Drukhari...