Chandra X-ray image of Sagittarius-A (near center), the black hole in the center of the Milky Way (Credit: NASA/CXC/MIT/F.K.Baganoff et al.)
Although the chances of it really happening in my lifetime are minimal to non-existent, there is a chance that Earth could get hit by a big asteroid, causing a few problems for humanity. Well, in case that isn't enough of an unlikely nightmare scenario to keep us up at night, how about this one: a massive galactic core black hole has now been observed escaping its galactic home, and is traveling uncontrolled through space.
My first reaction to this story: OK, how many of these are there out there?
If one of them passed nearby (I'm imagining that nearby for a supermassive galactic black hole could be 0.5 light year or so), we could get inundated with gravitic waves. Or, it could get close enough to suck up our entire Solar System, including the Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud.
Well, we actually do have more pressing things to worry about, like Iran's nuclear program, the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, car bombs in American cities, volcanic ash clouds bringing down airplanes, the Maine Republican Party platform, and the impressive stupidity of Virginia's Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, to name just a few.
But if I want to worry about something the nature of which is so unlikely that worrying about it makes me verging on psychotic, I have every right to. Actually, it's a defense mechanism, because worrying about something this unlikely means that I can spend less time worrying about things happening that are a lot more likely.
(I really don't worry about an imminent encounter with a supermassive galactic core black hole. But ... they do exist. Really. And at least one of them is roaming intergalactic space.)
Monster Black Hole Flung Out of Galaxy
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