Is it really true that there is a huge black hole that has swallowed thousands of planets?

I am sure that this has happened in some distant galactic core dominated by supermassive black holes, though of course we cannot know of a particular example where this has actually happened. Super massive black holes do, however, swallow stars and gas, and it is not a big leap of my imagination that some of these stars were not accompanied by planetary systems. What a dreadful fate. To be able to look up at the sky and see a distant 'hole' in space, knowing that in a few centuries you and your world would cease to exist...and there is not a single solitary thing you could do about it. The laws of physics are cruel, and they can destroy worlds as easily as the fool that steps out a window on the 45th floor. But to see your civilization's destiny literally written in the stars each night in this slow motion death dance must be awful.


Copyright 1997 Dr. Sten Odenwald
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