Black hole Armageddon: Earth could be DEVOURED by ‘rogue’ black hole - shock warning

As black holes age over billions of years, their mass grows as they consume the planets and stars around them. Things are no different for the black hole at the centre of the Milky Way, Sagittarius A*. The black hole is so large it has a mass 4.1 million times that of our Sun - and one space expert believes it could perhaps devour the Milky Way and ultimately devour Earth.

Although the chances are slim, it could happen, according to astrophysicist Heather Casper.

Ms Casper wrote on Q+A site Quora: “The only way the black hole could go rogue and destroy the stars orbiting it is if there were some incredibly large changes.

“Let’s say something did change. The black hole would grow larger and upset the orbits of stars near it, growing larger and larger, still.

“It would travel, destroying the galaxy until it wandered off into empty space and eventually succumbed to Hawking Radiation in a few billion years.

“If this course of events took place, there is a very, very small chance that Earth, our solar system, could fall prey to the black hole’s rampage. Infinitesimal chance.

“So, yes. It could happen. But it really, probably won’t. And it definitely won’t anytime remotely soon.”

Hawking Radiation, named after its discoverer, Stephen Hawking, is the process in which when there is nothing left for the black holes to devour, they will begin to emit radiation.

The theory suggests that particles could rob black holes of their energy making them disappear at a minuscule rate as they release everything they had once swallowed in a trickle of dust.

READ MORE: Black hole shock: Millions of black holes shooting across Milky Way

With Sagittarius A* being almost 26,000 light years away, Earth is extremely safe from the monster black hole for the foreseeable future.

As such, the timescale for the black hole eventually reaching Earth would be billions of years away, by which time the Sun would have likely burned out, and taken Earth with it.

There are a few ways in which a black hole can form.

Scientists believe the most common instance is when a star, thousands of times the size of our sun, collapses in on itself when it dies - known as a supernova.

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Another way is when a large amount of matter, which can be in the form of a gas cloud or a star collapses in on itself through its own gravitational pull.

Finally, the collision of two neutron stars can cause a black hole.

The gist of all three ways is that a massive amount of mass located in one spot can cause a black hole.