Here's a good rundown on the topic.
Quote:
Well, you can compute the rate at which this black hole will eat matter. Assuming it eats every proton, neutron, or electron that it comes in contact with -- and also taking into account its gravity, to see what it attracts -- it will eat about 66,000 protons and neutrons per second.
That rate will be constant until the black hole becomes quite large; at about one billion metric tonnes, the black hole will start to grow faster. Capturing 66,000 nucleons per second, how long will it take to get the black hole up to even one kilogram? Three trillion years, which is much longer than the lifetime of the Sun or even the age of the Universe.
So even if you make a black hole, and even if the laws of physics that we know are wrong and it lives forever, it is still harmless. So the Earth will still be okay.
|
Check it out, one of the best science blogs out there:
http://scienceblogs.com/startswithab...es_and_you.php