If the Sun suddenly became a black hole, what would happen to the Earth's orbit?

If the conversion were instantaneous and not 'sloppy' in terms of explosions, mass ejections etc, the Earth would follow in exactly its same orbit without loosing a step. The planet Mercury, however, which is slightly influenced by a weak non-spherical 'tidal' effect due to the fact the sun is rotating and not a perfect sphere, would have a sight change to its orbit in terms of the precession of its perihelion.

A black hole of exactly the same mass as the Sun, will produce exactly the same gravitational field as the Sun at the same distance the Earth is from the Sun.


Copyright 1997 Dr. Sten Odenwald
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