On 2002-12-20 01:17, Celestial Mechanic wrote:
Hmmm, a little more thought and I came up with a different scenario. Maybe there
could be a black hole at the center after all.
Suppose we "beam" the black hole into the center of the Earth just as in my earlier post. It starts to eat,
but as it does, the matter being sucked in gives off energy and heats the material around it. The pressure from this superheated matter supports the weight of the Earth above it and keeps it from falling in too fast. An equilibrium is reached where only enough matter to feed the black hole and heat the matter above it falls in. Now the question is, "What is the time scale for this? Could the Earth last for billions of years before its black hole consumes it?"
I will also mention that there is a theory that there may be a natural nuclear reactor at the center of the Earth in a uranium core inside the iron one. The same arguments apply. If the reactor overheats, the expansion is kept in check by the weight of the Earth above, if the reactor shuts down, the weight of the Earth will push the reactor back towards criticality.
Seismic measurements have given us some idea of what the density distribution inside the Earth is, so there cannot be too much of the Earth's mass tied up in a black hole, if there is one.