Ask Ethan: Could a black hole eventually swallow Earth?

Of all the ways that planet Earth could meet its eventual demise, death by black hole is among the most spectacular. While gamma-ray bursts, nearby supernovae, or giant collisions with asteroids or comets could easily pose a threat to all life on our planet, a black hole offers an even more grim fate: the possibility of destroying the Earth itself entirely, perhaps even swallowing it whole. While life on Earth is expected to come to an end within ~2 billion years as the Sun continues to swell, expand, and heat up, we expect the Earth itself to stick around for another 5–7 billion years, until the Sun becomes a red giant, at which point it will engulf Mercury, Venus, and possibly the Earth as well. But there’s always the possibility that a black hole will randomly, as the stars and stellar remnants dance throughout the Milky Way, pass into our Solar System, devouring our planet in the process. Which leads to this week’s question from Andrea Hall, who wants to know: <a href="https://medium.com/starts-with-a-bang/ask-ethan-could-a-black-hole-eventually-swallow-earth-88b55813bc75">Click Here</a>