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Re: Can a black hole feed more than once?!

Subject: Re: Can a black hole feed more than once?!
From: Erik Max Francis
Date: Sat, 10 Sep 2005 23:26:52 -0700
Newsgroups: sci.astro.seti, sci.astro, uk.sci.astronomy, sci.physics.relativity, rec.arts.sf.science
Charles Gilman wrote:

Isn't "the Sun eating planets in our solar system" a good description of
what will happen when it expands to a red giant larger than Earth's (and
possibly Mars') orbit?

Mercury and perhaps Venus at most. The mass loss episodes that will precede the Sun swelling into a red giant will cause the planets' orbits to spiral outward, and so when the Sun actually does reach its red giant phase, Earth and Mars (and of course the rest of the planets) will likely be spared orbiting inside its interior. Not that this will spare them from anything else, though ...

--
Erik Max Francis && max@xxxxxxxxxxx && http://www.alcyone.com/max/
San Jose, CA, USA && 37 20 N 121 53 W && AIM erikmaxfrancis
  Never take a stranger's advice / Never let a friend fool you twice
  -- Florence, _Chess_

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