Astronomers discover black hole in Earth's galactic backyard

[kurtcagle]

5. That's VERY close for a black hole.

The primary danger from a black hole is not really being sucked in by one. Yes, eventually EVERYTHING will end up either sucked into black holes or scattered out into space so far that they're essentially in their own separate universes due to the expansion of the universe. The bigger problem is that when a black hole starts absorbing a large star, the jets created by the warped magnetic fields can shoot gamma radiation, high energy photons, towards targets hundreds or even thousands of light-years away, essentially sterilizing all life in that direction. It's not a very big likelihood that it will happen to be facing the solar system when it does (most stars spin more or less perpendicular to the galactic plane, net surprisingly), but it's not out of the realm of possibility either.