Can black holes “eat” matter indefinitely or is there a limit? Do they ever have trouble absorbing large masses or is it always the same?

Question

Can black holes “eat” matter indefinitely or is there a limit? Do they ever have trouble absorbing large masses or is it always the same?

In: 11

Answer 1

First things first, Black hole doesn’t suck like a vacuum cleaner. It is just a massive amount of matter squished in a very very tiny space. What it does is have a pull on another object due to gravity. So if our Sun is suddenly replaced with a black hole of the same mass, Earth will not get pulled in, but will keep on revolving around it as it currently does.

As far as we understand right now, there is no theoretical limit on the amount of matter black holes can accumulate. However, there is a limit on the rate on which a black hole can gobble stuff. Which depends on the size of the black hole itself.