What would happen to a modern skyscraper if it rains micro blackholes?












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Set in present day New York City, an unknown spacecraft of alien origin expelled millions of micro blackholes each with the mass of a grape in the earth atmosphere. I like to know what happens if these millions of micro blackholes were to fall on building structures such as skyscrapers, would it trigger an extinction level event?










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    Given the aliens could easily send waves of asteroids to destroy Earth's surface completely with practically trivial effort (at their tech level), mucking around with micro black holes (or any black holes) seems quite daft.
    $endgroup$
    – StephenG
    yesterday






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    @user6760 what do you want to happen or expect to happen? I presume you chose black holes for a reason.
    $endgroup$
    – Snyder005
    yesterday






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    @StephenG - an entire can of micro black holes fits in the storage cupboard in the corner of the spacecraft's kitchen (which has a stasis field to keep food fresh, and keep black holes from evaporating), going out and dragging waves of asteroids is a lot more work than just opening a can of micro-blackholes and sprinkling them out a hatch.
    $endgroup$
    – Johnny
    yesterday








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    @Johnny As explained in answers, in an instant of time after you open the "can" (remove the magic statsis field) so short you could not measure it, all the micro black holes evaporate (with a huge out-pouring of radiation like a nuke). Dragging asteroids is what we in engineering call "safer", at least for the aliens - but still kills the pesky humans. :-)
    $endgroup$
    – StephenG
    yesterday






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    just one point - whatever effect you're thinking about (and don't forget, there is no effect - small black holes just evaporate) ... it would happen to the air before happening to anything else it is moving towards.
    $endgroup$
    – Fattie
    10 hours ago
















7












$begingroup$


Set in present day New York City, an unknown spacecraft of alien origin expelled millions of micro blackholes each with the mass of a grape in the earth atmosphere. I like to know what happens if these millions of micro blackholes were to fall on building structures such as skyscrapers, would it trigger an extinction level event?










share|improve this question











$endgroup$








  • 5




    $begingroup$
    Given the aliens could easily send waves of asteroids to destroy Earth's surface completely with practically trivial effort (at their tech level), mucking around with micro black holes (or any black holes) seems quite daft.
    $endgroup$
    – StephenG
    yesterday






  • 4




    $begingroup$
    @user6760 what do you want to happen or expect to happen? I presume you chose black holes for a reason.
    $endgroup$
    – Snyder005
    yesterday






  • 1




    $begingroup$
    @StephenG - an entire can of micro black holes fits in the storage cupboard in the corner of the spacecraft's kitchen (which has a stasis field to keep food fresh, and keep black holes from evaporating), going out and dragging waves of asteroids is a lot more work than just opening a can of micro-blackholes and sprinkling them out a hatch.
    $endgroup$
    – Johnny
    yesterday








  • 2




    $begingroup$
    @Johnny As explained in answers, in an instant of time after you open the "can" (remove the magic statsis field) so short you could not measure it, all the micro black holes evaporate (with a huge out-pouring of radiation like a nuke). Dragging asteroids is what we in engineering call "safer", at least for the aliens - but still kills the pesky humans. :-)
    $endgroup$
    – StephenG
    yesterday






  • 1




    $begingroup$
    just one point - whatever effect you're thinking about (and don't forget, there is no effect - small black holes just evaporate) ... it would happen to the air before happening to anything else it is moving towards.
    $endgroup$
    – Fattie
    10 hours ago














7












7








7


1



$begingroup$


Set in present day New York City, an unknown spacecraft of alien origin expelled millions of micro blackholes each with the mass of a grape in the earth atmosphere. I like to know what happens if these millions of micro blackholes were to fall on building structures such as skyscrapers, would it trigger an extinction level event?










share|improve this question











$endgroup$




Set in present day New York City, an unknown spacecraft of alien origin expelled millions of micro blackholes each with the mass of a grape in the earth atmosphere. I like to know what happens if these millions of micro blackholes were to fall on building structures such as skyscrapers, would it trigger an extinction level event?







apocalypse weapon-mass-destruction black-holes extinction






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edited yesterday









Renan

52.6k15120261




52.6k15120261










asked yesterday









user6760user6760

13.6k1676166




13.6k1676166








  • 5




    $begingroup$
    Given the aliens could easily send waves of asteroids to destroy Earth's surface completely with practically trivial effort (at their tech level), mucking around with micro black holes (or any black holes) seems quite daft.
    $endgroup$
    – StephenG
    yesterday






  • 4




    $begingroup$
    @user6760 what do you want to happen or expect to happen? I presume you chose black holes for a reason.
    $endgroup$
    – Snyder005
    yesterday






  • 1




    $begingroup$
    @StephenG - an entire can of micro black holes fits in the storage cupboard in the corner of the spacecraft's kitchen (which has a stasis field to keep food fresh, and keep black holes from evaporating), going out and dragging waves of asteroids is a lot more work than just opening a can of micro-blackholes and sprinkling them out a hatch.
    $endgroup$
    – Johnny
    yesterday








  • 2




    $begingroup$
    @Johnny As explained in answers, in an instant of time after you open the "can" (remove the magic statsis field) so short you could not measure it, all the micro black holes evaporate (with a huge out-pouring of radiation like a nuke). Dragging asteroids is what we in engineering call "safer", at least for the aliens - but still kills the pesky humans. :-)
    $endgroup$
    – StephenG
    yesterday






  • 1




    $begingroup$
    just one point - whatever effect you're thinking about (and don't forget, there is no effect - small black holes just evaporate) ... it would happen to the air before happening to anything else it is moving towards.
    $endgroup$
    – Fattie
    10 hours ago














  • 5




    $begingroup$
    Given the aliens could easily send waves of asteroids to destroy Earth's surface completely with practically trivial effort (at their tech level), mucking around with micro black holes (or any black holes) seems quite daft.
    $endgroup$
    – StephenG
    yesterday






  • 4




    $begingroup$
    @user6760 what do you want to happen or expect to happen? I presume you chose black holes for a reason.
    $endgroup$
    – Snyder005
    yesterday






  • 1




    $begingroup$
    @StephenG - an entire can of micro black holes fits in the storage cupboard in the corner of the spacecraft's kitchen (which has a stasis field to keep food fresh, and keep black holes from evaporating), going out and dragging waves of asteroids is a lot more work than just opening a can of micro-blackholes and sprinkling them out a hatch.
    $endgroup$
    – Johnny
    yesterday








  • 2




    $begingroup$
    @Johnny As explained in answers, in an instant of time after you open the "can" (remove the magic statsis field) so short you could not measure it, all the micro black holes evaporate (with a huge out-pouring of radiation like a nuke). Dragging asteroids is what we in engineering call "safer", at least for the aliens - but still kills the pesky humans. :-)
    $endgroup$
    – StephenG
    yesterday






  • 1




    $begingroup$
    just one point - whatever effect you're thinking about (and don't forget, there is no effect - small black holes just evaporate) ... it would happen to the air before happening to anything else it is moving towards.
    $endgroup$
    – Fattie
    10 hours ago








5




5




$begingroup$
Given the aliens could easily send waves of asteroids to destroy Earth's surface completely with practically trivial effort (at their tech level), mucking around with micro black holes (or any black holes) seems quite daft.
$endgroup$
– StephenG
yesterday




$begingroup$
Given the aliens could easily send waves of asteroids to destroy Earth's surface completely with practically trivial effort (at their tech level), mucking around with micro black holes (or any black holes) seems quite daft.
$endgroup$
– StephenG
yesterday




4




4




$begingroup$
@user6760 what do you want to happen or expect to happen? I presume you chose black holes for a reason.
$endgroup$
– Snyder005
yesterday




$begingroup$
@user6760 what do you want to happen or expect to happen? I presume you chose black holes for a reason.
$endgroup$
– Snyder005
yesterday




1




1




$begingroup$
@StephenG - an entire can of micro black holes fits in the storage cupboard in the corner of the spacecraft's kitchen (which has a stasis field to keep food fresh, and keep black holes from evaporating), going out and dragging waves of asteroids is a lot more work than just opening a can of micro-blackholes and sprinkling them out a hatch.
$endgroup$
– Johnny
yesterday






$begingroup$
@StephenG - an entire can of micro black holes fits in the storage cupboard in the corner of the spacecraft's kitchen (which has a stasis field to keep food fresh, and keep black holes from evaporating), going out and dragging waves of asteroids is a lot more work than just opening a can of micro-blackholes and sprinkling them out a hatch.
$endgroup$
– Johnny
yesterday






2




2




$begingroup$
@Johnny As explained in answers, in an instant of time after you open the "can" (remove the magic statsis field) so short you could not measure it, all the micro black holes evaporate (with a huge out-pouring of radiation like a nuke). Dragging asteroids is what we in engineering call "safer", at least for the aliens - but still kills the pesky humans. :-)
$endgroup$
– StephenG
yesterday




$begingroup$
@Johnny As explained in answers, in an instant of time after you open the "can" (remove the magic statsis field) so short you could not measure it, all the micro black holes evaporate (with a huge out-pouring of radiation like a nuke). Dragging asteroids is what we in engineering call "safer", at least for the aliens - but still kills the pesky humans. :-)
$endgroup$
– StephenG
yesterday




1




1




$begingroup$
just one point - whatever effect you're thinking about (and don't forget, there is no effect - small black holes just evaporate) ... it would happen to the air before happening to anything else it is moving towards.
$endgroup$
– Fattie
10 hours ago




$begingroup$
just one point - whatever effect you're thinking about (and don't forget, there is no effect - small black holes just evaporate) ... it would happen to the air before happening to anything else it is moving towards.
$endgroup$
– Fattie
10 hours ago










5 Answers
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would it triggers extinction level event?




Since they'd evaporate more or less instantaneously (known as Hawking radiation), releasing energy according to the famous equation beginning E=, the spaceship would last a few microseconds at best, Earth would be fine.



Yes, the aliens in the ship would become extinct.






share|improve this answer









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  • 7




    $begingroup$
    According to this calculator (eguruchela.com/physics/calculator/…), they would last 1.6581375e-29 seconds. There is also the fact that their radius would be so small, that they wouldn't even interact with atoms most of the time.
    $endgroup$
    – Tyler S. Loeper
    yesterday








  • 4




    $begingroup$
    @TylerS.Loeper Gosh, we don't have an SI multiplier to express that, atto is feeling left out and lonely.
    $endgroup$
    – Agrajag
    yesterday








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    How about they just pick the right size black holes that they evaporate with a boom after they reach Earth? That shouldn't be too hard. They'd only be grape sized for a tiny while, but that's fine.
    $endgroup$
    – John Dvorak
    yesterday








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    @John Dvorak a 1,000 metric tons black hole will have a lifespan of 84 seconds. It may be enough to reach the surface, but it's going to release an energy amount equivalent to teratons of TNT.
    $endgroup$
    – Alexander
    yesterday






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    @Alexander well, that counts as success in my book! :P
    $endgroup$
    – John Dvorak
    yesterday



















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Black holes evaporate by emitting Hawking radiation




a 1-second-life black hole has a mass of $2.28 cdot 10^5 kg$




A grape has far less mass than that, thus the black hole would evaporate way faster than that.



An intelligent life form dropping micro black holes on Earth would thus quickly annihilate its own bombing squad in a shower of gamma ray, proving that they were not so intelligent as we thought.






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  • $begingroup$
    So, basically, aliens playing with tech they don't quite fully understand yet resulting in unintended consequences. Basically an alien version of the early Cold War period.
    $endgroup$
    – reirab
    yesterday










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    @reirab, I mean, we managed not to blow ourselves up during the Cold War, so... score one for humanity I guess?
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    – Gryphon
    yesterday



















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The electromagnetic force from one electron on another and the gravitational force of this micro-black hole both follow an inverse square law. A grape about 1.5 cm in radius would have a mass of about 0.015 kg.



When does the gravitational force of the grape exceed the electromagnetic force between electrons ? It's when :



$$frac r R < sqrt{frac {4pi epsilon_0Gm_em_h}{e^2}} = 6.3times 10^{-8}$$



Meaning the black hole would have to pass less than one ten millionth of the distance between electrons to have a significant influence on one. Away from than range the electron will happily go about it's business hardly disturbed at all.



Even if a black hole passes this close the effect is only temporary. You're still nowhere near the event horizon of that black hole and so the electron will, at worst, be pulled away from it's normal motion and after some brief period when the black hole moves away it will simply recombined in some way with the bulk of atoms around it. It might cause a minute amount of damage on a molecular level (even allowing for millions of these micro black holes), but the net effect would be tiny, probably less that someone hitting a wall with their hand.




How about they expell at fraction of c so we take length contraction into question?




You seem to mean that to avoid Hawking radiation evaporation destroying these black holes before they even reach the black hole, they could be ejected at a high fraction of the speed of light.



So how high a speed is needed to avoid them evaporating before they travel 100 meters, assuming your aliens like low level flying ?



The fraction of the speed of light needed is :



$$frac v c > frac 1 { sqrt{ 1 + left( frac {Tc} L right)^2 } }$$



Where $L$ is the distance they must travel and $T$ is the lifetime of the micro black hole before it evaporates.



This works out at $frac v c approx 1 - 2times 10^{-19}$. That's insanely close to the speed of light.



A million grapes of mass 0.015 kg will have a mass of 15,000 kg. But the energy required to get them moving at this insane fraction of the speed of light would be enormous. It equates to a mass about $2times 10^9$ times 15,000 kg. Or to put it another way, the ship firing these micro black holes would need to have a mass-energy of about $3times 10^{13}$ kg. The asteroid Vesta is substantially larger than this.



So this is actually a small mass in terms of asteroids and you could probably destroy Earth a lot more easily simply by grabbing some handy largish asteroids and sending them on their merry way towards Earth at some modest speed that's easily imparted with your spaceship.



Conclusion :



No need at all to mess around with ultra-relativistic micro-black holes when the universe provides you with much simpler and easy to handle "ammunition" in the form of basic asteroids.






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    I was wondering about that speed, thanks for working it out.
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    – Kevin
    yesterday






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    Ultra-relativistic black holes would be considerably less effective than throwing Vesta at the Earth: as you note, they'll mostly just pass through Earth without doing anything.
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    – Mark
    yesterday






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    Interestingly, an actual grape going at that speed would be far more devastating than a grape-massed black hole. I don't have the time to do the math at the moment, but I'd guess it'd be enough to overcome the gravitational binding energy of the Earth.
    $endgroup$
    – Gryphon
    yesterday










  • $begingroup$
    👍for addressing my comment too
    $endgroup$
    – user6760
    yesterday



















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All the answers so far take as read the veracity of Hawking Radiation. If we assume, for a moment, that this is false and that some undiscovered process prevents black hole evaporation (perhaps there is a layer of physics underlying quantum mechanics in the same way that QM underlies classical physics...); then what happens?



The black holes would fall to Earth like grapes (I assume you've removed their orbital velocity so that they don't just stay in orbit). They would accelerate like any falling body but, because of their tiny size, would not experience any air resistance. So they would arrive at the surface going at a fair old clip. If dropped from orbit, say about 400km up, this would be about 70 km/s. At the surface, what would happen? Nothing much, I'd guess... They're still so small that "solid" matter is practically a vacuum to them so they go straight through, down past the crust, mantle, core and then up the other side, out through Western Australia, back up to about 400km where they stop - and then tumble back down again. Eventually, they'd settle into a highly elliptical orbit around the centre of the Earth. The Coriolis force would make it look like the stream was scanning round the Earth every 24 hours.



Occasionally, one of them would strike a nucleus head-on and capture some of its quarks, so it would grow slightly. This process would have some positive feedback (bigger the event horizon gets, more chance of interaction) but I'm not sure what the time constant would look like. Anyone fancy doing the calculation? I'm guessing it might be aeons before it eats the Earth...






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    $begingroup$

    If we take "size of a grape" to mean a gram, then a million of them would be 1 metric ton. When they evaporate, they release energy several orders of magnitudes higher than a nuclear bomb. So New York would be devastated, but the earth as whole would not have large effects, although it might produce radioactive elements that would increase cancer rates.






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    • 3




      $begingroup$
      You forget that those micro black holes won't make it to New York. They'll evaporate the alien ship instead.
      $endgroup$
      – cmaster
      17 hours ago










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      @cmaster The question says "an unknown spacecraft of alien origin expelled millions of micro blackholes each with the mass of a grape in the earth atmosphere." So the black holes making it to the atmosphere is stated as being part of the hypothetical. The equivalent of nuclear bombs exploding in the atmosphere is going to cause problems.
      $endgroup$
      – Acccumulation
      9 hours ago










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      Yes, but that's already the part that simply doesn't work out. The aliens won't manage to get such tiny black holes into the atmosphere. It's not like you can create them directly where you need them out of nothing. If you want a black hole that can travel from the alien ship into the atmosphere before exploding, it needs to be many orders of magnitude bigger, and then it'll explode with such tremendous force that you won't need a second black hole to destroy the city.
      $endgroup$
      – cmaster
      8 hours ago












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    5 Answers
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    5 Answers
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    $begingroup$


    would it triggers extinction level event?




    Since they'd evaporate more or less instantaneously (known as Hawking radiation), releasing energy according to the famous equation beginning E=, the spaceship would last a few microseconds at best, Earth would be fine.



    Yes, the aliens in the ship would become extinct.






    share|improve this answer









    $endgroup$









    • 7




      $begingroup$
      According to this calculator (eguruchela.com/physics/calculator/…), they would last 1.6581375e-29 seconds. There is also the fact that their radius would be so small, that they wouldn't even interact with atoms most of the time.
      $endgroup$
      – Tyler S. Loeper
      yesterday








    • 4




      $begingroup$
      @TylerS.Loeper Gosh, we don't have an SI multiplier to express that, atto is feeling left out and lonely.
      $endgroup$
      – Agrajag
      yesterday








    • 2




      $begingroup$
      How about they just pick the right size black holes that they evaporate with a boom after they reach Earth? That shouldn't be too hard. They'd only be grape sized for a tiny while, but that's fine.
      $endgroup$
      – John Dvorak
      yesterday








    • 4




      $begingroup$
      @John Dvorak a 1,000 metric tons black hole will have a lifespan of 84 seconds. It may be enough to reach the surface, but it's going to release an energy amount equivalent to teratons of TNT.
      $endgroup$
      – Alexander
      yesterday






    • 2




      $begingroup$
      @Alexander well, that counts as success in my book! :P
      $endgroup$
      – John Dvorak
      yesterday
















    35












    $begingroup$


    would it triggers extinction level event?




    Since they'd evaporate more or less instantaneously (known as Hawking radiation), releasing energy according to the famous equation beginning E=, the spaceship would last a few microseconds at best, Earth would be fine.



    Yes, the aliens in the ship would become extinct.






    share|improve this answer









    $endgroup$









    • 7




      $begingroup$
      According to this calculator (eguruchela.com/physics/calculator/…), they would last 1.6581375e-29 seconds. There is also the fact that their radius would be so small, that they wouldn't even interact with atoms most of the time.
      $endgroup$
      – Tyler S. Loeper
      yesterday








    • 4




      $begingroup$
      @TylerS.Loeper Gosh, we don't have an SI multiplier to express that, atto is feeling left out and lonely.
      $endgroup$
      – Agrajag
      yesterday








    • 2




      $begingroup$
      How about they just pick the right size black holes that they evaporate with a boom after they reach Earth? That shouldn't be too hard. They'd only be grape sized for a tiny while, but that's fine.
      $endgroup$
      – John Dvorak
      yesterday








    • 4




      $begingroup$
      @John Dvorak a 1,000 metric tons black hole will have a lifespan of 84 seconds. It may be enough to reach the surface, but it's going to release an energy amount equivalent to teratons of TNT.
      $endgroup$
      – Alexander
      yesterday






    • 2




      $begingroup$
      @Alexander well, that counts as success in my book! :P
      $endgroup$
      – John Dvorak
      yesterday














    35












    35








    35





    $begingroup$


    would it triggers extinction level event?




    Since they'd evaporate more or less instantaneously (known as Hawking radiation), releasing energy according to the famous equation beginning E=, the spaceship would last a few microseconds at best, Earth would be fine.



    Yes, the aliens in the ship would become extinct.






    share|improve this answer









    $endgroup$




    would it triggers extinction level event?




    Since they'd evaporate more or less instantaneously (known as Hawking radiation), releasing energy according to the famous equation beginning E=, the spaceship would last a few microseconds at best, Earth would be fine.



    Yes, the aliens in the ship would become extinct.







    share|improve this answer












    share|improve this answer



    share|improve this answer










    answered yesterday









    AgrajagAgrajag

    7,12411550




    7,12411550








    • 7




      $begingroup$
      According to this calculator (eguruchela.com/physics/calculator/…), they would last 1.6581375e-29 seconds. There is also the fact that their radius would be so small, that they wouldn't even interact with atoms most of the time.
      $endgroup$
      – Tyler S. Loeper
      yesterday








    • 4




      $begingroup$
      @TylerS.Loeper Gosh, we don't have an SI multiplier to express that, atto is feeling left out and lonely.
      $endgroup$
      – Agrajag
      yesterday








    • 2




      $begingroup$
      How about they just pick the right size black holes that they evaporate with a boom after they reach Earth? That shouldn't be too hard. They'd only be grape sized for a tiny while, but that's fine.
      $endgroup$
      – John Dvorak
      yesterday








    • 4




      $begingroup$
      @John Dvorak a 1,000 metric tons black hole will have a lifespan of 84 seconds. It may be enough to reach the surface, but it's going to release an energy amount equivalent to teratons of TNT.
      $endgroup$
      – Alexander
      yesterday






    • 2




      $begingroup$
      @Alexander well, that counts as success in my book! :P
      $endgroup$
      – John Dvorak
      yesterday














    • 7




      $begingroup$
      According to this calculator (eguruchela.com/physics/calculator/…), they would last 1.6581375e-29 seconds. There is also the fact that their radius would be so small, that they wouldn't even interact with atoms most of the time.
      $endgroup$
      – Tyler S. Loeper
      yesterday








    • 4




      $begingroup$
      @TylerS.Loeper Gosh, we don't have an SI multiplier to express that, atto is feeling left out and lonely.
      $endgroup$
      – Agrajag
      yesterday








    • 2




      $begingroup$
      How about they just pick the right size black holes that they evaporate with a boom after they reach Earth? That shouldn't be too hard. They'd only be grape sized for a tiny while, but that's fine.
      $endgroup$
      – John Dvorak
      yesterday








    • 4




      $begingroup$
      @John Dvorak a 1,000 metric tons black hole will have a lifespan of 84 seconds. It may be enough to reach the surface, but it's going to release an energy amount equivalent to teratons of TNT.
      $endgroup$
      – Alexander
      yesterday






    • 2




      $begingroup$
      @Alexander well, that counts as success in my book! :P
      $endgroup$
      – John Dvorak
      yesterday








    7




    7




    $begingroup$
    According to this calculator (eguruchela.com/physics/calculator/…), they would last 1.6581375e-29 seconds. There is also the fact that their radius would be so small, that they wouldn't even interact with atoms most of the time.
    $endgroup$
    – Tyler S. Loeper
    yesterday






    $begingroup$
    According to this calculator (eguruchela.com/physics/calculator/…), they would last 1.6581375e-29 seconds. There is also the fact that their radius would be so small, that they wouldn't even interact with atoms most of the time.
    $endgroup$
    – Tyler S. Loeper
    yesterday






    4




    4




    $begingroup$
    @TylerS.Loeper Gosh, we don't have an SI multiplier to express that, atto is feeling left out and lonely.
    $endgroup$
    – Agrajag
    yesterday






    $begingroup$
    @TylerS.Loeper Gosh, we don't have an SI multiplier to express that, atto is feeling left out and lonely.
    $endgroup$
    – Agrajag
    yesterday






    2




    2




    $begingroup$
    How about they just pick the right size black holes that they evaporate with a boom after they reach Earth? That shouldn't be too hard. They'd only be grape sized for a tiny while, but that's fine.
    $endgroup$
    – John Dvorak
    yesterday






    $begingroup$
    How about they just pick the right size black holes that they evaporate with a boom after they reach Earth? That shouldn't be too hard. They'd only be grape sized for a tiny while, but that's fine.
    $endgroup$
    – John Dvorak
    yesterday






    4




    4




    $begingroup$
    @John Dvorak a 1,000 metric tons black hole will have a lifespan of 84 seconds. It may be enough to reach the surface, but it's going to release an energy amount equivalent to teratons of TNT.
    $endgroup$
    – Alexander
    yesterday




    $begingroup$
    @John Dvorak a 1,000 metric tons black hole will have a lifespan of 84 seconds. It may be enough to reach the surface, but it's going to release an energy amount equivalent to teratons of TNT.
    $endgroup$
    – Alexander
    yesterday




    2




    2




    $begingroup$
    @Alexander well, that counts as success in my book! :P
    $endgroup$
    – John Dvorak
    yesterday




    $begingroup$
    @Alexander well, that counts as success in my book! :P
    $endgroup$
    – John Dvorak
    yesterday











    21












    $begingroup$

    Black holes evaporate by emitting Hawking radiation




    a 1-second-life black hole has a mass of $2.28 cdot 10^5 kg$




    A grape has far less mass than that, thus the black hole would evaporate way faster than that.



    An intelligent life form dropping micro black holes on Earth would thus quickly annihilate its own bombing squad in a shower of gamma ray, proving that they were not so intelligent as we thought.






    share|improve this answer









    $endgroup$













    • $begingroup$
      So, basically, aliens playing with tech they don't quite fully understand yet resulting in unintended consequences. Basically an alien version of the early Cold War period.
      $endgroup$
      – reirab
      yesterday










    • $begingroup$
      @reirab, I mean, we managed not to blow ourselves up during the Cold War, so... score one for humanity I guess?
      $endgroup$
      – Gryphon
      yesterday
















    21












    $begingroup$

    Black holes evaporate by emitting Hawking radiation




    a 1-second-life black hole has a mass of $2.28 cdot 10^5 kg$




    A grape has far less mass than that, thus the black hole would evaporate way faster than that.



    An intelligent life form dropping micro black holes on Earth would thus quickly annihilate its own bombing squad in a shower of gamma ray, proving that they were not so intelligent as we thought.






    share|improve this answer









    $endgroup$













    • $begingroup$
      So, basically, aliens playing with tech they don't quite fully understand yet resulting in unintended consequences. Basically an alien version of the early Cold War period.
      $endgroup$
      – reirab
      yesterday










    • $begingroup$
      @reirab, I mean, we managed not to blow ourselves up during the Cold War, so... score one for humanity I guess?
      $endgroup$
      – Gryphon
      yesterday














    21












    21








    21





    $begingroup$

    Black holes evaporate by emitting Hawking radiation




    a 1-second-life black hole has a mass of $2.28 cdot 10^5 kg$




    A grape has far less mass than that, thus the black hole would evaporate way faster than that.



    An intelligent life form dropping micro black holes on Earth would thus quickly annihilate its own bombing squad in a shower of gamma ray, proving that they were not so intelligent as we thought.






    share|improve this answer









    $endgroup$



    Black holes evaporate by emitting Hawking radiation




    a 1-second-life black hole has a mass of $2.28 cdot 10^5 kg$




    A grape has far less mass than that, thus the black hole would evaporate way faster than that.



    An intelligent life form dropping micro black holes on Earth would thus quickly annihilate its own bombing squad in a shower of gamma ray, proving that they were not so intelligent as we thought.







    share|improve this answer












    share|improve this answer



    share|improve this answer










    answered yesterday









    L.DutchL.Dutch

    90.4k29209437




    90.4k29209437












    • $begingroup$
      So, basically, aliens playing with tech they don't quite fully understand yet resulting in unintended consequences. Basically an alien version of the early Cold War period.
      $endgroup$
      – reirab
      yesterday










    • $begingroup$
      @reirab, I mean, we managed not to blow ourselves up during the Cold War, so... score one for humanity I guess?
      $endgroup$
      – Gryphon
      yesterday


















    • $begingroup$
      So, basically, aliens playing with tech they don't quite fully understand yet resulting in unintended consequences. Basically an alien version of the early Cold War period.
      $endgroup$
      – reirab
      yesterday










    • $begingroup$
      @reirab, I mean, we managed not to blow ourselves up during the Cold War, so... score one for humanity I guess?
      $endgroup$
      – Gryphon
      yesterday
















    $begingroup$
    So, basically, aliens playing with tech they don't quite fully understand yet resulting in unintended consequences. Basically an alien version of the early Cold War period.
    $endgroup$
    – reirab
    yesterday




    $begingroup$
    So, basically, aliens playing with tech they don't quite fully understand yet resulting in unintended consequences. Basically an alien version of the early Cold War period.
    $endgroup$
    – reirab
    yesterday












    $begingroup$
    @reirab, I mean, we managed not to blow ourselves up during the Cold War, so... score one for humanity I guess?
    $endgroup$
    – Gryphon
    yesterday




    $begingroup$
    @reirab, I mean, we managed not to blow ourselves up during the Cold War, so... score one for humanity I guess?
    $endgroup$
    – Gryphon
    yesterday











    15












    $begingroup$

    The electromagnetic force from one electron on another and the gravitational force of this micro-black hole both follow an inverse square law. A grape about 1.5 cm in radius would have a mass of about 0.015 kg.



    When does the gravitational force of the grape exceed the electromagnetic force between electrons ? It's when :



    $$frac r R < sqrt{frac {4pi epsilon_0Gm_em_h}{e^2}} = 6.3times 10^{-8}$$



    Meaning the black hole would have to pass less than one ten millionth of the distance between electrons to have a significant influence on one. Away from than range the electron will happily go about it's business hardly disturbed at all.



    Even if a black hole passes this close the effect is only temporary. You're still nowhere near the event horizon of that black hole and so the electron will, at worst, be pulled away from it's normal motion and after some brief period when the black hole moves away it will simply recombined in some way with the bulk of atoms around it. It might cause a minute amount of damage on a molecular level (even allowing for millions of these micro black holes), but the net effect would be tiny, probably less that someone hitting a wall with their hand.




    How about they expell at fraction of c so we take length contraction into question?




    You seem to mean that to avoid Hawking radiation evaporation destroying these black holes before they even reach the black hole, they could be ejected at a high fraction of the speed of light.



    So how high a speed is needed to avoid them evaporating before they travel 100 meters, assuming your aliens like low level flying ?



    The fraction of the speed of light needed is :



    $$frac v c > frac 1 { sqrt{ 1 + left( frac {Tc} L right)^2 } }$$



    Where $L$ is the distance they must travel and $T$ is the lifetime of the micro black hole before it evaporates.



    This works out at $frac v c approx 1 - 2times 10^{-19}$. That's insanely close to the speed of light.



    A million grapes of mass 0.015 kg will have a mass of 15,000 kg. But the energy required to get them moving at this insane fraction of the speed of light would be enormous. It equates to a mass about $2times 10^9$ times 15,000 kg. Or to put it another way, the ship firing these micro black holes would need to have a mass-energy of about $3times 10^{13}$ kg. The asteroid Vesta is substantially larger than this.



    So this is actually a small mass in terms of asteroids and you could probably destroy Earth a lot more easily simply by grabbing some handy largish asteroids and sending them on their merry way towards Earth at some modest speed that's easily imparted with your spaceship.



    Conclusion :



    No need at all to mess around with ultra-relativistic micro-black holes when the universe provides you with much simpler and easy to handle "ammunition" in the form of basic asteroids.






    share|improve this answer









    $endgroup$













    • $begingroup$
      I was wondering about that speed, thanks for working it out.
      $endgroup$
      – Kevin
      yesterday






    • 1




      $begingroup$
      Ultra-relativistic black holes would be considerably less effective than throwing Vesta at the Earth: as you note, they'll mostly just pass through Earth without doing anything.
      $endgroup$
      – Mark
      yesterday






    • 1




      $begingroup$
      Interestingly, an actual grape going at that speed would be far more devastating than a grape-massed black hole. I don't have the time to do the math at the moment, but I'd guess it'd be enough to overcome the gravitational binding energy of the Earth.
      $endgroup$
      – Gryphon
      yesterday










    • $begingroup$
      👍for addressing my comment too
      $endgroup$
      – user6760
      yesterday
















    15












    $begingroup$

    The electromagnetic force from one electron on another and the gravitational force of this micro-black hole both follow an inverse square law. A grape about 1.5 cm in radius would have a mass of about 0.015 kg.



    When does the gravitational force of the grape exceed the electromagnetic force between electrons ? It's when :



    $$frac r R < sqrt{frac {4pi epsilon_0Gm_em_h}{e^2}} = 6.3times 10^{-8}$$



    Meaning the black hole would have to pass less than one ten millionth of the distance between electrons to have a significant influence on one. Away from than range the electron will happily go about it's business hardly disturbed at all.



    Even if a black hole passes this close the effect is only temporary. You're still nowhere near the event horizon of that black hole and so the electron will, at worst, be pulled away from it's normal motion and after some brief period when the black hole moves away it will simply recombined in some way with the bulk of atoms around it. It might cause a minute amount of damage on a molecular level (even allowing for millions of these micro black holes), but the net effect would be tiny, probably less that someone hitting a wall with their hand.




    How about they expell at fraction of c so we take length contraction into question?




    You seem to mean that to avoid Hawking radiation evaporation destroying these black holes before they even reach the black hole, they could be ejected at a high fraction of the speed of light.



    So how high a speed is needed to avoid them evaporating before they travel 100 meters, assuming your aliens like low level flying ?



    The fraction of the speed of light needed is :



    $$frac v c > frac 1 { sqrt{ 1 + left( frac {Tc} L right)^2 } }$$



    Where $L$ is the distance they must travel and $T$ is the lifetime of the micro black hole before it evaporates.



    This works out at $frac v c approx 1 - 2times 10^{-19}$. That's insanely close to the speed of light.



    A million grapes of mass 0.015 kg will have a mass of 15,000 kg. But the energy required to get them moving at this insane fraction of the speed of light would be enormous. It equates to a mass about $2times 10^9$ times 15,000 kg. Or to put it another way, the ship firing these micro black holes would need to have a mass-energy of about $3times 10^{13}$ kg. The asteroid Vesta is substantially larger than this.



    So this is actually a small mass in terms of asteroids and you could probably destroy Earth a lot more easily simply by grabbing some handy largish asteroids and sending them on their merry way towards Earth at some modest speed that's easily imparted with your spaceship.



    Conclusion :



    No need at all to mess around with ultra-relativistic micro-black holes when the universe provides you with much simpler and easy to handle "ammunition" in the form of basic asteroids.






    share|improve this answer









    $endgroup$













    • $begingroup$
      I was wondering about that speed, thanks for working it out.
      $endgroup$
      – Kevin
      yesterday






    • 1




      $begingroup$
      Ultra-relativistic black holes would be considerably less effective than throwing Vesta at the Earth: as you note, they'll mostly just pass through Earth without doing anything.
      $endgroup$
      – Mark
      yesterday






    • 1




      $begingroup$
      Interestingly, an actual grape going at that speed would be far more devastating than a grape-massed black hole. I don't have the time to do the math at the moment, but I'd guess it'd be enough to overcome the gravitational binding energy of the Earth.
      $endgroup$
      – Gryphon
      yesterday










    • $begingroup$
      👍for addressing my comment too
      $endgroup$
      – user6760
      yesterday














    15












    15








    15





    $begingroup$

    The electromagnetic force from one electron on another and the gravitational force of this micro-black hole both follow an inverse square law. A grape about 1.5 cm in radius would have a mass of about 0.015 kg.



    When does the gravitational force of the grape exceed the electromagnetic force between electrons ? It's when :



    $$frac r R < sqrt{frac {4pi epsilon_0Gm_em_h}{e^2}} = 6.3times 10^{-8}$$



    Meaning the black hole would have to pass less than one ten millionth of the distance between electrons to have a significant influence on one. Away from than range the electron will happily go about it's business hardly disturbed at all.



    Even if a black hole passes this close the effect is only temporary. You're still nowhere near the event horizon of that black hole and so the electron will, at worst, be pulled away from it's normal motion and after some brief period when the black hole moves away it will simply recombined in some way with the bulk of atoms around it. It might cause a minute amount of damage on a molecular level (even allowing for millions of these micro black holes), but the net effect would be tiny, probably less that someone hitting a wall with their hand.




    How about they expell at fraction of c so we take length contraction into question?




    You seem to mean that to avoid Hawking radiation evaporation destroying these black holes before they even reach the black hole, they could be ejected at a high fraction of the speed of light.



    So how high a speed is needed to avoid them evaporating before they travel 100 meters, assuming your aliens like low level flying ?



    The fraction of the speed of light needed is :



    $$frac v c > frac 1 { sqrt{ 1 + left( frac {Tc} L right)^2 } }$$



    Where $L$ is the distance they must travel and $T$ is the lifetime of the micro black hole before it evaporates.



    This works out at $frac v c approx 1 - 2times 10^{-19}$. That's insanely close to the speed of light.



    A million grapes of mass 0.015 kg will have a mass of 15,000 kg. But the energy required to get them moving at this insane fraction of the speed of light would be enormous. It equates to a mass about $2times 10^9$ times 15,000 kg. Or to put it another way, the ship firing these micro black holes would need to have a mass-energy of about $3times 10^{13}$ kg. The asteroid Vesta is substantially larger than this.



    So this is actually a small mass in terms of asteroids and you could probably destroy Earth a lot more easily simply by grabbing some handy largish asteroids and sending them on their merry way towards Earth at some modest speed that's easily imparted with your spaceship.



    Conclusion :



    No need at all to mess around with ultra-relativistic micro-black holes when the universe provides you with much simpler and easy to handle "ammunition" in the form of basic asteroids.






    share|improve this answer









    $endgroup$



    The electromagnetic force from one electron on another and the gravitational force of this micro-black hole both follow an inverse square law. A grape about 1.5 cm in radius would have a mass of about 0.015 kg.



    When does the gravitational force of the grape exceed the electromagnetic force between electrons ? It's when :



    $$frac r R < sqrt{frac {4pi epsilon_0Gm_em_h}{e^2}} = 6.3times 10^{-8}$$



    Meaning the black hole would have to pass less than one ten millionth of the distance between electrons to have a significant influence on one. Away from than range the electron will happily go about it's business hardly disturbed at all.



    Even if a black hole passes this close the effect is only temporary. You're still nowhere near the event horizon of that black hole and so the electron will, at worst, be pulled away from it's normal motion and after some brief period when the black hole moves away it will simply recombined in some way with the bulk of atoms around it. It might cause a minute amount of damage on a molecular level (even allowing for millions of these micro black holes), but the net effect would be tiny, probably less that someone hitting a wall with their hand.




    How about they expell at fraction of c so we take length contraction into question?




    You seem to mean that to avoid Hawking radiation evaporation destroying these black holes before they even reach the black hole, they could be ejected at a high fraction of the speed of light.



    So how high a speed is needed to avoid them evaporating before they travel 100 meters, assuming your aliens like low level flying ?



    The fraction of the speed of light needed is :



    $$frac v c > frac 1 { sqrt{ 1 + left( frac {Tc} L right)^2 } }$$



    Where $L$ is the distance they must travel and $T$ is the lifetime of the micro black hole before it evaporates.



    This works out at $frac v c approx 1 - 2times 10^{-19}$. That's insanely close to the speed of light.



    A million grapes of mass 0.015 kg will have a mass of 15,000 kg. But the energy required to get them moving at this insane fraction of the speed of light would be enormous. It equates to a mass about $2times 10^9$ times 15,000 kg. Or to put it another way, the ship firing these micro black holes would need to have a mass-energy of about $3times 10^{13}$ kg. The asteroid Vesta is substantially larger than this.



    So this is actually a small mass in terms of asteroids and you could probably destroy Earth a lot more easily simply by grabbing some handy largish asteroids and sending them on their merry way towards Earth at some modest speed that's easily imparted with your spaceship.



    Conclusion :



    No need at all to mess around with ultra-relativistic micro-black holes when the universe provides you with much simpler and easy to handle "ammunition" in the form of basic asteroids.







    share|improve this answer












    share|improve this answer



    share|improve this answer










    answered yesterday









    StephenGStephenG

    14.2k72052




    14.2k72052












    • $begingroup$
      I was wondering about that speed, thanks for working it out.
      $endgroup$
      – Kevin
      yesterday






    • 1




      $begingroup$
      Ultra-relativistic black holes would be considerably less effective than throwing Vesta at the Earth: as you note, they'll mostly just pass through Earth without doing anything.
      $endgroup$
      – Mark
      yesterday






    • 1




      $begingroup$
      Interestingly, an actual grape going at that speed would be far more devastating than a grape-massed black hole. I don't have the time to do the math at the moment, but I'd guess it'd be enough to overcome the gravitational binding energy of the Earth.
      $endgroup$
      – Gryphon
      yesterday










    • $begingroup$
      👍for addressing my comment too
      $endgroup$
      – user6760
      yesterday


















    • $begingroup$
      I was wondering about that speed, thanks for working it out.
      $endgroup$
      – Kevin
      yesterday






    • 1




      $begingroup$
      Ultra-relativistic black holes would be considerably less effective than throwing Vesta at the Earth: as you note, they'll mostly just pass through Earth without doing anything.
      $endgroup$
      – Mark
      yesterday






    • 1




      $begingroup$
      Interestingly, an actual grape going at that speed would be far more devastating than a grape-massed black hole. I don't have the time to do the math at the moment, but I'd guess it'd be enough to overcome the gravitational binding energy of the Earth.
      $endgroup$
      – Gryphon
      yesterday










    • $begingroup$
      👍for addressing my comment too
      $endgroup$
      – user6760
      yesterday
















    $begingroup$
    I was wondering about that speed, thanks for working it out.
    $endgroup$
    – Kevin
    yesterday




    $begingroup$
    I was wondering about that speed, thanks for working it out.
    $endgroup$
    – Kevin
    yesterday




    1




    1




    $begingroup$
    Ultra-relativistic black holes would be considerably less effective than throwing Vesta at the Earth: as you note, they'll mostly just pass through Earth without doing anything.
    $endgroup$
    – Mark
    yesterday




    $begingroup$
    Ultra-relativistic black holes would be considerably less effective than throwing Vesta at the Earth: as you note, they'll mostly just pass through Earth without doing anything.
    $endgroup$
    – Mark
    yesterday




    1




    1




    $begingroup$
    Interestingly, an actual grape going at that speed would be far more devastating than a grape-massed black hole. I don't have the time to do the math at the moment, but I'd guess it'd be enough to overcome the gravitational binding energy of the Earth.
    $endgroup$
    – Gryphon
    yesterday




    $begingroup$
    Interestingly, an actual grape going at that speed would be far more devastating than a grape-massed black hole. I don't have the time to do the math at the moment, but I'd guess it'd be enough to overcome the gravitational binding energy of the Earth.
    $endgroup$
    – Gryphon
    yesterday












    $begingroup$
    👍for addressing my comment too
    $endgroup$
    – user6760
    yesterday




    $begingroup$
    👍for addressing my comment too
    $endgroup$
    – user6760
    yesterday











    3












    $begingroup$

    All the answers so far take as read the veracity of Hawking Radiation. If we assume, for a moment, that this is false and that some undiscovered process prevents black hole evaporation (perhaps there is a layer of physics underlying quantum mechanics in the same way that QM underlies classical physics...); then what happens?



    The black holes would fall to Earth like grapes (I assume you've removed their orbital velocity so that they don't just stay in orbit). They would accelerate like any falling body but, because of their tiny size, would not experience any air resistance. So they would arrive at the surface going at a fair old clip. If dropped from orbit, say about 400km up, this would be about 70 km/s. At the surface, what would happen? Nothing much, I'd guess... They're still so small that "solid" matter is practically a vacuum to them so they go straight through, down past the crust, mantle, core and then up the other side, out through Western Australia, back up to about 400km where they stop - and then tumble back down again. Eventually, they'd settle into a highly elliptical orbit around the centre of the Earth. The Coriolis force would make it look like the stream was scanning round the Earth every 24 hours.



    Occasionally, one of them would strike a nucleus head-on and capture some of its quarks, so it would grow slightly. This process would have some positive feedback (bigger the event horizon gets, more chance of interaction) but I'm not sure what the time constant would look like. Anyone fancy doing the calculation? I'm guessing it might be aeons before it eats the Earth...






    share|improve this answer









    $endgroup$


















      3












      $begingroup$

      All the answers so far take as read the veracity of Hawking Radiation. If we assume, for a moment, that this is false and that some undiscovered process prevents black hole evaporation (perhaps there is a layer of physics underlying quantum mechanics in the same way that QM underlies classical physics...); then what happens?



      The black holes would fall to Earth like grapes (I assume you've removed their orbital velocity so that they don't just stay in orbit). They would accelerate like any falling body but, because of their tiny size, would not experience any air resistance. So they would arrive at the surface going at a fair old clip. If dropped from orbit, say about 400km up, this would be about 70 km/s. At the surface, what would happen? Nothing much, I'd guess... They're still so small that "solid" matter is practically a vacuum to them so they go straight through, down past the crust, mantle, core and then up the other side, out through Western Australia, back up to about 400km where they stop - and then tumble back down again. Eventually, they'd settle into a highly elliptical orbit around the centre of the Earth. The Coriolis force would make it look like the stream was scanning round the Earth every 24 hours.



      Occasionally, one of them would strike a nucleus head-on and capture some of its quarks, so it would grow slightly. This process would have some positive feedback (bigger the event horizon gets, more chance of interaction) but I'm not sure what the time constant would look like. Anyone fancy doing the calculation? I'm guessing it might be aeons before it eats the Earth...






      share|improve this answer









      $endgroup$
















        3












        3








        3





        $begingroup$

        All the answers so far take as read the veracity of Hawking Radiation. If we assume, for a moment, that this is false and that some undiscovered process prevents black hole evaporation (perhaps there is a layer of physics underlying quantum mechanics in the same way that QM underlies classical physics...); then what happens?



        The black holes would fall to Earth like grapes (I assume you've removed their orbital velocity so that they don't just stay in orbit). They would accelerate like any falling body but, because of their tiny size, would not experience any air resistance. So they would arrive at the surface going at a fair old clip. If dropped from orbit, say about 400km up, this would be about 70 km/s. At the surface, what would happen? Nothing much, I'd guess... They're still so small that "solid" matter is practically a vacuum to them so they go straight through, down past the crust, mantle, core and then up the other side, out through Western Australia, back up to about 400km where they stop - and then tumble back down again. Eventually, they'd settle into a highly elliptical orbit around the centre of the Earth. The Coriolis force would make it look like the stream was scanning round the Earth every 24 hours.



        Occasionally, one of them would strike a nucleus head-on and capture some of its quarks, so it would grow slightly. This process would have some positive feedback (bigger the event horizon gets, more chance of interaction) but I'm not sure what the time constant would look like. Anyone fancy doing the calculation? I'm guessing it might be aeons before it eats the Earth...






        share|improve this answer









        $endgroup$



        All the answers so far take as read the veracity of Hawking Radiation. If we assume, for a moment, that this is false and that some undiscovered process prevents black hole evaporation (perhaps there is a layer of physics underlying quantum mechanics in the same way that QM underlies classical physics...); then what happens?



        The black holes would fall to Earth like grapes (I assume you've removed their orbital velocity so that they don't just stay in orbit). They would accelerate like any falling body but, because of their tiny size, would not experience any air resistance. So they would arrive at the surface going at a fair old clip. If dropped from orbit, say about 400km up, this would be about 70 km/s. At the surface, what would happen? Nothing much, I'd guess... They're still so small that "solid" matter is practically a vacuum to them so they go straight through, down past the crust, mantle, core and then up the other side, out through Western Australia, back up to about 400km where they stop - and then tumble back down again. Eventually, they'd settle into a highly elliptical orbit around the centre of the Earth. The Coriolis force would make it look like the stream was scanning round the Earth every 24 hours.



        Occasionally, one of them would strike a nucleus head-on and capture some of its quarks, so it would grow slightly. This process would have some positive feedback (bigger the event horizon gets, more chance of interaction) but I'm not sure what the time constant would look like. Anyone fancy doing the calculation? I'm guessing it might be aeons before it eats the Earth...







        share|improve this answer












        share|improve this answer



        share|improve this answer










        answered 16 hours ago









        Oscar BravoOscar Bravo

        40826




        40826























            0












            $begingroup$

            If we take "size of a grape" to mean a gram, then a million of them would be 1 metric ton. When they evaporate, they release energy several orders of magnitudes higher than a nuclear bomb. So New York would be devastated, but the earth as whole would not have large effects, although it might produce radioactive elements that would increase cancer rates.






            share|improve this answer











            $endgroup$









            • 3




              $begingroup$
              You forget that those micro black holes won't make it to New York. They'll evaporate the alien ship instead.
              $endgroup$
              – cmaster
              17 hours ago










            • $begingroup$
              @cmaster The question says "an unknown spacecraft of alien origin expelled millions of micro blackholes each with the mass of a grape in the earth atmosphere." So the black holes making it to the atmosphere is stated as being part of the hypothetical. The equivalent of nuclear bombs exploding in the atmosphere is going to cause problems.
              $endgroup$
              – Acccumulation
              9 hours ago










            • $begingroup$
              Yes, but that's already the part that simply doesn't work out. The aliens won't manage to get such tiny black holes into the atmosphere. It's not like you can create them directly where you need them out of nothing. If you want a black hole that can travel from the alien ship into the atmosphere before exploding, it needs to be many orders of magnitude bigger, and then it'll explode with such tremendous force that you won't need a second black hole to destroy the city.
              $endgroup$
              – cmaster
              8 hours ago
















            0












            $begingroup$

            If we take "size of a grape" to mean a gram, then a million of them would be 1 metric ton. When they evaporate, they release energy several orders of magnitudes higher than a nuclear bomb. So New York would be devastated, but the earth as whole would not have large effects, although it might produce radioactive elements that would increase cancer rates.






            share|improve this answer











            $endgroup$









            • 3




              $begingroup$
              You forget that those micro black holes won't make it to New York. They'll evaporate the alien ship instead.
              $endgroup$
              – cmaster
              17 hours ago










            • $begingroup$
              @cmaster The question says "an unknown spacecraft of alien origin expelled millions of micro blackholes each with the mass of a grape in the earth atmosphere." So the black holes making it to the atmosphere is stated as being part of the hypothetical. The equivalent of nuclear bombs exploding in the atmosphere is going to cause problems.
              $endgroup$
              – Acccumulation
              9 hours ago










            • $begingroup$
              Yes, but that's already the part that simply doesn't work out. The aliens won't manage to get such tiny black holes into the atmosphere. It's not like you can create them directly where you need them out of nothing. If you want a black hole that can travel from the alien ship into the atmosphere before exploding, it needs to be many orders of magnitude bigger, and then it'll explode with such tremendous force that you won't need a second black hole to destroy the city.
              $endgroup$
              – cmaster
              8 hours ago














            0












            0








            0





            $begingroup$

            If we take "size of a grape" to mean a gram, then a million of them would be 1 metric ton. When they evaporate, they release energy several orders of magnitudes higher than a nuclear bomb. So New York would be devastated, but the earth as whole would not have large effects, although it might produce radioactive elements that would increase cancer rates.






            share|improve this answer











            $endgroup$



            If we take "size of a grape" to mean a gram, then a million of them would be 1 metric ton. When they evaporate, they release energy several orders of magnitudes higher than a nuclear bomb. So New York would be devastated, but the earth as whole would not have large effects, although it might produce radioactive elements that would increase cancer rates.







            share|improve this answer














            share|improve this answer



            share|improve this answer








            edited 9 hours ago

























            answered 21 hours ago









            AcccumulationAcccumulation

            61517




            61517








            • 3




              $begingroup$
              You forget that those micro black holes won't make it to New York. They'll evaporate the alien ship instead.
              $endgroup$
              – cmaster
              17 hours ago










            • $begingroup$
              @cmaster The question says "an unknown spacecraft of alien origin expelled millions of micro blackholes each with the mass of a grape in the earth atmosphere." So the black holes making it to the atmosphere is stated as being part of the hypothetical. The equivalent of nuclear bombs exploding in the atmosphere is going to cause problems.
              $endgroup$
              – Acccumulation
              9 hours ago










            • $begingroup$
              Yes, but that's already the part that simply doesn't work out. The aliens won't manage to get such tiny black holes into the atmosphere. It's not like you can create them directly where you need them out of nothing. If you want a black hole that can travel from the alien ship into the atmosphere before exploding, it needs to be many orders of magnitude bigger, and then it'll explode with such tremendous force that you won't need a second black hole to destroy the city.
              $endgroup$
              – cmaster
              8 hours ago














            • 3




              $begingroup$
              You forget that those micro black holes won't make it to New York. They'll evaporate the alien ship instead.
              $endgroup$
              – cmaster
              17 hours ago










            • $begingroup$
              @cmaster The question says "an unknown spacecraft of alien origin expelled millions of micro blackholes each with the mass of a grape in the earth atmosphere." So the black holes making it to the atmosphere is stated as being part of the hypothetical. The equivalent of nuclear bombs exploding in the atmosphere is going to cause problems.
              $endgroup$
              – Acccumulation
              9 hours ago










            • $begingroup$
              Yes, but that's already the part that simply doesn't work out. The aliens won't manage to get such tiny black holes into the atmosphere. It's not like you can create them directly where you need them out of nothing. If you want a black hole that can travel from the alien ship into the atmosphere before exploding, it needs to be many orders of magnitude bigger, and then it'll explode with such tremendous force that you won't need a second black hole to destroy the city.
              $endgroup$
              – cmaster
              8 hours ago








            3




            3




            $begingroup$
            You forget that those micro black holes won't make it to New York. They'll evaporate the alien ship instead.
            $endgroup$
            – cmaster
            17 hours ago




            $begingroup$
            You forget that those micro black holes won't make it to New York. They'll evaporate the alien ship instead.
            $endgroup$
            – cmaster
            17 hours ago












            $begingroup$
            @cmaster The question says "an unknown spacecraft of alien origin expelled millions of micro blackholes each with the mass of a grape in the earth atmosphere." So the black holes making it to the atmosphere is stated as being part of the hypothetical. The equivalent of nuclear bombs exploding in the atmosphere is going to cause problems.
            $endgroup$
            – Acccumulation
            9 hours ago




            $begingroup$
            @cmaster The question says "an unknown spacecraft of alien origin expelled millions of micro blackholes each with the mass of a grape in the earth atmosphere." So the black holes making it to the atmosphere is stated as being part of the hypothetical. The equivalent of nuclear bombs exploding in the atmosphere is going to cause problems.
            $endgroup$
            – Acccumulation
            9 hours ago












            $begingroup$
            Yes, but that's already the part that simply doesn't work out. The aliens won't manage to get such tiny black holes into the atmosphere. It's not like you can create them directly where you need them out of nothing. If you want a black hole that can travel from the alien ship into the atmosphere before exploding, it needs to be many orders of magnitude bigger, and then it'll explode with such tremendous force that you won't need a second black hole to destroy the city.
            $endgroup$
            – cmaster
            8 hours ago




            $begingroup$
            Yes, but that's already the part that simply doesn't work out. The aliens won't manage to get such tiny black holes into the atmosphere. It's not like you can create them directly where you need them out of nothing. If you want a black hole that can travel from the alien ship into the atmosphere before exploding, it needs to be many orders of magnitude bigger, and then it'll explode with such tremendous force that you won't need a second black hole to destroy the city.
            $endgroup$
            – cmaster
            8 hours ago


















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