What Would Happen If a Black Hole Collided With a Magnetar?

 

We have long understood the power of the most massive object in the universe a black hole but have you ever wondered if there could be something out there that could overpower this object of infinite density what would happen if a monster of infinite density met with a monster of infinite power when everything ceased to exist is it possible a black hole could be defeated welcome to Science Reads today we will explore what happens when these two colossal celestial bodies clash with one another a monster of pure mass before we are able to speculate what would happen in a battle between these two behemoths we need to understand what makes each of these contenders unique the term black hole was coined in 1967 by physicist john a wheeler this business of dropping things into a black hole and having everything disappear but curiously it was first described by Carl Schwartz child in the early 20th century he created a series of theories that described a star so dense and massive that nothing could escape its gravitational field not even light itself before wheeler black holes were called frozen stars and they were regarded by scientists as nothing more than mathematical oddities fueled by imagination a few decades later however the skeptics had to eat their own words because in 1964 the first ever black hole was discovered in the constellation of Cygnus and since then we have accumulated a greater understanding of the inner mechanisms behind these galactic beasts essentially black holes emerge out of the darkness after massive stars reach the ends of their lives when a star is at its last few breaths it starts running out of hydrogen and once it does it starts to burn helium this process slowly fuses the remaining atoms into heavier and heavier elements until the layers of the star collapse on their own weight making a massive and powerful explosion known as a supernova after this massive explosion some of the star's remnants are left behind according to Albert Einstein's

 equations of general relativity

 if the star remains are about three times or more of the mass of the earth's sun

 it could create a powerful gravitational force that overwhelms everything in its path and the material it's made of will be crushed to an infinitely small point with infinite density these minute points of infinite density

 begin consuming any and all material that approaches its event horizon over the course of millions of years they eventually grow into titanic beasts lurking at every corner of our universe it wasn't until recently in April of 2019 where the event horizon telescope collaboration took the first image of a black hole which lies right at the center of the M87 galaxy somewhere around 55 million light years from earth the image showed a bright ring with a dark center which is the black hole shadow according to Sarah Markov a theoretical astrophysicist at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands after using many different calculations the mass of this black hole is estimated to be 6.5 billion solar masses you heard that right it's 6.5 billion times the mass of our sun its diameter stretches 24 billion miles or 38 billion kilometers making it incredibly huge even by black hole standards for comparison sake the massive black hole at the core of our galaxy sagittarius a has a radius of about 14.6 million miles and a mass of 4.6 million solar masses as you can see M87's black hole is over 1 000 times more massive than our very own galactic monster but is there anything that could compete with its unprecedented density well let's take a look at what our next contender has to offer the study of magnetars is relatively new the mysterious and elusive cosmic specimens were first detected on march 5th 1979 when a massive burst of gamma rays hit our space probes and subsequently earth thankfully there was nothing to worry about since we were protected by our planet's atmosphere but these rays did disrupt radios momentarily and send gamma-ray detectors off the charts even after traveling over 50 000 light years at first scientists across the world had absolutely no idea how or why these incredible strong gamma rays hit our planet it wasn't until over a decade later in 1992 that scientists theorized the existence of magnetars and that their incredibly strong magnetic fields cause the star's outer layer to rupture and shoot out powerful bursts of gamma rays since then we have learned a lot more about these powerful entities in our universe magnetars like black holes are super

 dense remnants of supernova explosions

 they are the strongest magnets known in the universe millions of times more powerful than the strongest magnets on earth though we don't know exactly how these magnetic fiends are formed we have a vague understanding of their inception when a massive star collapses under its own gravity after a supernova explosion it creates either a neutron star or black hole usually if the newly exploded star is somewhere between one to three solar masses it tends to form a neutron star anything greater than that and you've got yourself a black hole except in extremely rare occurrences a supernova of a star with 10 to 25 solar masses could create one of these incredibly powerful beasts magnetars in all essence are an extremely rare form of neutron stars just like any other neutron star magnetars are tiny and extraordinarily dense a teaspoon of neutron star material would have a mass of about a billion tons magnetars are much slower than neutron stars which rotate one to ten times per second while magnetars rotate once every two to ten seconds the main difference between these two is that the strength of the magnetic field around a magnetar completely is beyond imagination allow me to put it into perspective the magnetic field of the earth's core is approximately 25 gauss and here on the surface of the earth we experience less than half a gauss this common magnet that you could find at your local hardware store is about 100 gauss now for the heavy hitters let me introduce a neutron star which has a magnetic field of 1 trillion gauss and just when you

 thought it couldn't get any more mind-blowing magnetars are 1,000 times more powerful than that with a magnetic field of a quadrillion gauss what would happen if your average joe came close to one of these magnetars well within about 1,000 kilometers of a magnetar the magnetic field is so strong it starts disrupting the electrons in your atoms you would be torn apart at an atomic level and disintegrated in a blink of an eye could this unparalleled amount of pure

 energy be enough to eviscerate a black hole a monster mash what would happen if a massive magnetar clashed with a super dense black hole well we're not completely sure there is no evidence of such an event ever occurring all we can do is simply speculate but if we follow the math it turns out that the face-off with these two titans would not result in a massive explosion they would quietly merge with one another or more accurately a black hole would easily gobble up a magnetar like it was a piece of pumpkin pie how long this galactic assault would take would depend on what angle the magnetar clashed with the black hole but other than that there is absolutely no question who it emerges the victor if this clash of titans were to happen

 it would leave a massive curvature of

 the space-time continuum that would travel millions of years until it reached earth we could even potentially measure all the intricacies undergoing this process but once the black hole finished its magnetar dessert it would grow even bigger and more powerful than before which also means that its event horizon would grow making it more likely to consume debris around it if the black hole grew massive enough

 could it one day reach our very own home would it be the end of all humanity and everything we hold dear thank you all for reading i hope you have learned something new if you did be sure to subscribe to the channel for more amazing content like this would you rather step in a magnetar or would you choose to be pulled into a black hole tell us what you think in the comments down below if you're feeling generous you can buy us a coffee with the link in the description this will help us towards our goal of bringing you better and longer articles every single day of the week and as always thanks for reading we'll see you next time