What If a Black Hole Replaced The Sun?

[yuiyoshida]

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

1. This is dumb.

Humans will not be around some trillions of years in the future.

And long before that, the expansion of the Universe will mean that all of the stars in our local cluster will have coalesced into one very large galaxy, and everything else will be so very far away that the light from other distant galaxies will no longer reach the Earth. That means (and this is about 50-60 billion years in the future) that those far off astronomers will not only have any way of knowing that there are other galaxies out there, but they will have no way of knowing how large the Universe is, or how old it is. Right now, some 13 or so billion years after the Big Bang, a lot of information is available or discoverable. In short, we live in the Golden Age of cosmology.

[qazplm135]

5. it is dumb but there's a germ of a decent question in there

what will future intelligent life, human or otherwise, do when all the stars are gone and the only source of energy is black holes?

I suspect a far-thinking hyper intelligent species might move planets and other massive objects, into the vicinity of a black hole, and use the energy generated by tossing them into it to power their civilizations. The energy provided by gravity differentials will likely be the last energy source life can use.

Obviously, once you run out of mass and/or the black holes dissipate, you are done...but the one thing life will do, is try and extend itself as long as possible.

[Zambero]

2. That would really suck!

From planet earth's perspective anyway.

[AJT]

3. Soundgarden wishes it were so....

Black hole sun
Won't you come
And wash away the rain
Black hole sun
Won't you come
Won't you come (won't you come)

[Zambero]

4. Steve & Eydie actually covered that one!

It was hard to top Johnny Cash doing Nine Inch Nails, but somehow they managed it.

[friendly_iconoclast]

6. Hah! Glad to know I wasn't the only one who immediately thought of Soundgarden...

[krispos42]

7. Then I'm switching my vote

from "Asteroid 2020" to "Black Hole 2020".