How to get rid of a Black Hole.

[Zack Alklazaris]

Black holes are really nothing more than matter condensed into a tiny tiny itty bitty bit of space. Picture the mass (gravity) of everything in the solar system into the size of a marble. I would say, perhaps, I am not positive on the subject, but maybe if you fired an equal amount of anti matter into the black hole. It could neutralize the matter inside of it. This would effectively make the black hole simply disappear.

The general problem with this theory is practicality, which makes it great for the realms of Science Fiction. Antimatter/Matter reaction is 1 to 1 as in for every atom of matter it takes 1 atom of anti-matter to neutralize it. So lets say its a small black hole that indeed has the entire mass of the solar system in it.

That would mean you need 1.992 x 10^30kg of anti-matter. Thats a lot of fucking anti-matter. Maybe you wouldn't need that much as once the mass of the black hole reaches Earth size... perhaps it would no longer be a black hole? I'm not sure.

There's a bit of a bigger problem than that for Antimatter destroying a black hole sadly.

At its most basic level, Matter and Antimatter is made of the same stuff. At the level it is compressed to in a black hole, both matter and Antimatter simply become a singularity. There is no matter to be neutralised by Antimatter per se. There is simply the singularity, and everything that goes into the black hole simply makes that singularity denser and possibly larger. If you were to bomb a black hole with that much antimatter, you'd only have the effect of doubling its mass.

It is possibly one of the more believable space magic explanations that could work though. Although, from the sounds of things this bomb or W/E isn't meant to work anyway.
And OP, if that is the case, and this bomb isn't meant to work, then possibly the best thing you could do is make it a flawed concept, then use the flaws in that concept as the reason why it didn't work, so long as that doesn't majorly interfere with the plot.

So pretty much the only answer is run like hell?

 

[Ljs1121]

The only way to stop a black hole is with a virgin sacrifice. The physics gods must be pleased!!!!!

In all seriousness, I know next to nothing about physics so I have no idea. Maybe find a way to create another black hole inside of the existing one and they'd cancel each other out?

[sub]If you have knowledge of physics please don't become offended by my blasphemy and place my head upon a pike[/sub]

 

[Josdeb]

Black holes obey the laws of gravity and as such, can be curved out of the way. Just put a large planet (say, Jupiter) along its path and watch it sail by. Remember, Black holes are only dangerous when you get sufficiently close to them (within or near their event horizon (or to be on the safe side, within the original stellar radius)), so a minor nudge might just do the trick.


Listen to the man, he knows things. Black holes really aren't as dangerous and all-consuming as they are made out to be.

Unless of course you take into account:

- Incredible friction heating of particles near the black hole
- X-rays and gamma radiation of anything that falls in
- Space doing weird things and moving faster than the speed of light inside the ergosphere (seriously, don't go there)
- Horrible spaghettification of anything within the Roche Limit because of tidal forces

And of course, if the black hole is heavy enough, it pulling the planets out of orbit. But then again, if you can put Jupiter in the way of the black hole, there'd be no problem putting back Earth where it belongs.

This was going to be my reply. In "A Brief History of Time" Hawking mentions briefly the possibility of having a black hole in orbit around the Earth (The reason for actually doing that, I can't remember - either research or as an energy source, I think).

He stated to do this you could theoretically "lead" the black hole. Put something massive enough near it and it'll curve towards it - just like a planet or a moon would curve to a star.

 

[gigastar]

Its worth keeping in mind that what we know as a "black hole" is actually the area around an infinite mass from which light cannot escape.

Since light cannot escape a black hole a galaxy-busting explosion will just get sucked up where it approaches the hole.

And if the hole has its gravational effect nullified, you get a galaxy-busting nuclear explosion caused by all that infinite mass not wanting to occupy a single point anymore.

Theres also the prospect of using antimatter, but even a fledgling black hole would require enough anti matter to make up our Sol system to neutralise it. And most fledgling black holes come from star systems with much larger masses than ours.

In conlusion, youre going to need to come up with some applied phlebtonium [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AppliedPhlebotinum] to get rid of it.

 

[Rayne870]

Tide to Go sticks...I swear that stuff can take on anything!

Other than that I would say create a larger unmoving black hole in the path of the moving black hole, or delve into redirecting either the black hole or the solar system with a large worm hole.

 

[gigastar]

This was going to be my reply. In "A Brief History of Time" Hawking mentions briefly the possibility of having a black hole in orbit around the Earth (The reason for actually doing that, I can't remember - either research or as an energy source, I think).

He stated to do this you could theoretically "lead" the black hole. Put something massive enough near it and it'll curve towards it - just like a planet or a moon would curve to a star.

This is not as viable as it sounds. To get an observeable effect on the direction of a travelling black hole you would need a mass that is equal to or greater than the mass of the black hole.

Black holes are considered to have an infinite mass so gathering a mass equal to or greater than a black hole would at the very least result in a new star bieng born.

Then you must remember that the stresses created by a black holes gravatational field often rip apart any object from quite a long way away. So any mass you put near it may end up just forming a fancy new accretion disc.

 

[Aris Khandr]

In All Good Things..., the Enterprise managed to collapse an anomaly by surrounding it with a static warp shell at the convergence of three different periods of time. You could try that with the black hole. Also, reverse the polarity of something, that generally seems to help.

And when in doubt:

 

[Joccaren]

So pretty much the only answer is run like hell?

Pretty much. Run like hell, or if you have enough time deflect it with the use of massive objects, as has been suggested.

Also, someone correct me if I'm wrong, but from memory Black Holes did NOT have infinite Mass, but infinite density. May seem like a small distinction, but it does make a massive difference.

 

[Da Orky Man]

Obviously you make a bigger black hole to consume the smaller one.

Problem solved. Next.

Well, I think it's recursive since then - how do I get rid of a black hole is the next problem.

OT: Well, make black holes behave differently in your universe. And counteract that. Maybe they are actual rips in the fabric of the universe and they can be "patched". Or whatever alternative interpretation you get for them.

In this universe, Black Holes are not naturally occuring things, so I guess that should immediately make them different.

If a black hole was moving towards Earth, there is only one reasonable thing to do... Bend over and kiss your ass good bye...

A bomb to defuse a black hole is beyond a touch of space magic. It would need the equivalent of all the space magic from The Core, The Day The Earth Stood Still, Armageddon, 2012 and every sci-fi made for TV movie, combined.

Sorry, but other than a massive exodus (and some space magic), there is absolutely nothing I can think of that could stop a black hole...

The idea is that the Black Hole is created by a thing that implodes and becomes a black hole, the device to stop it is one of those, but reversed. They are of equal power and should cancel eachother out. It doesn't entirely matter if they do or don't, the device never actually explodes, i'm just trying to have a reasonably plausible setup.

I'm sorry to say, but there is no plausible way to do this. The only way even possible under the laws of physics as we know now is to throw several billion tons of antimatter at it. Which is a small problem, given that we can make a couple of nanograms per year at most, and even if we had a 100% efficient way, and put all of Earth's power behind it, we may make a couple of kilos.

 

[lacktheknack]

Why try to stop the black hole? Just move the solar system out of its way. Much easier.

Seriously, this thread is silly. It's like standing on train tracks and asking about the best way to stop the train.

Actually, moving the solar system out of the way is totally how it should be done. I'd read the CRAP out of that short story.

 

[fer-]

Read 'Earth' by David Brin, similar premise, only the black hole was accidentally created and then sunk into the core of the earth.

 

[lacktheknack]

Religion...? Seems that most people facing an ultimate and certain death turn to religion and hope... maybe a creater of sorts can save the planet?

How to alienate over a third of your readers in six pages or less: Follow this advice.

If played right, you can massively offend up to eighty percent of your readers in an even shorter space! Should you wish to piss off as many as possible using this method, study the science of the Time Cube for further inspiration.

(In all seriousness, that's going to read like a huge cop out to lots of people. Probably not a good idea fora short story.

 

[Kiardras]

You could possibly take inspiration from an episode of Stargate for this. In it, they opened the gate to a planet on the verge of being sucked into a black hole, and thus the gravitational distortions started to creep through the wormhole. It was only solved by using a directed bomb to make the wormhole jump to another gate.

 

[Athinira]

Use the force, luke?

Catpcha: Point blank

 

[Elementary - Dear Watson]

Religion...? Seems that most people facing an ultimate and certain death turn to religion and hope... maybe a creater of sorts can save the planet?

How to alienate over a third of your readers in six pages or less: Follow this advice.

If played right, you can massively offend up to eighty percent of your readers in an even shorter space! Should you wish to piss off as many as possible using this method, study the science of the Time Cube for further inspiration.

(In all seriousness, that's going to read like a huge cop out to lots of people. Probably not a good idea fora short story.

Sorry... forgot the obligatory /sarcasm at the end of my post... I wasn't really suggesting that, it was just something that hadn't been suggested! I knew that putting it on a gaming website, in a science thread, it would get shunned!

 

[Scylla6]

I can't believe that no-one's said this. Just punt the damn thing away. Figure out it's mass, and speed, find something bigger or quicker, introduce. Boom, now it's going backwards. Black holes don't just ignore Newton's laws. Alternatively, a similar trick at an angle, divert it up or down the galactic plane.
It would take some wrangling, and you'd need a huge mass, but it should, hypothetically speaking of course, work.

 

[Starik20X6]

Barter with it, I'm sure black holes can be reasonable folk. Offer it 3 chickens, a sack of barley and a half-dead goat, and see how it responds.

Really though, seems like it'd be less effort to just up and move to another planet. Yeah it'd be the ultimate loss, but then humanity becomes a race of space-faring nomads, travelling the stars just exploring, forever. Sounds like it might kick ass.

 

[Highlandheadbanger]

Magnets. Problem solved.

 

[Moth_Monk]

You could have it that the humans have a device that can create Cosmic Strings. That would warp the space around the black hole so that as it travelled it would encounter a closed time loop and so would never reach the Solar System.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmic_string

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closed_timelike_curve

 

[DaWaffledude]

Create another rogue black hole next to it, travelling in the opposite direction. They should pull each-other to a stand-still.