Hi Fringan,
Well I'm no expert, but it seems to me that your labouring under the weight of at least one misconception - an easy one to make - which is that if there were very many black holes then the structure of the Universe would be fundamentally different. You see, the gravitational force produced by any object is proportional to its mass, whether it be a black hole, a single star or a supercluster of galaxies.
If the Sun were to collapse to a black hole tomorrow, the planets would still go about the same orbits (granted it might get a bit colder though). The only difference as far as the gravitational field is concerned is that the Sun would have an event horizon, from which nothing could escape.
So when you say that black holes would "eat up all loose matter", its not strictly true, as they wouldn't eat up any more than normal stars of the same mass.
Incidentally, when you say:
Fringan writes:
I heard somewhere there should be around 10 million black holes in the milky way by now and a new one forms about once every 1000 years.
..could you direct me to where you read this? (Not saying you're wrong, just interested).
I was also going to write about how the general scientific consensus was that the Universe would expand forever but after having read
this I think its best to keep schtum.
We can now wait for the real astrophysicists on the forum to tell me just how outdated this all is....
PE
[This message has been edited by Primordial Egg, 02-28-2004]
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