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Hello,
I was watching a show on one of DirectTV's Science channels last night about supermassive black holes. They stated the these supermassive black holes exist in two phases : 1. When they are sucking in everything around them (stars, planets, moons, etc). 2. When they aren't sucking in everything around them.
Question: When the supermassive black hole is in Phase 2 (not sucking in stars), how to the stars stay in orbit around the hole? The planets in our solar system orbit the sun in a slightly elliptical manner, rather than perfectly circular. This is due to our sun's gravity accelerating our planets', then pulling it back in, no? I was thinking with a supermassive black hole, wouldn't the stars around that black hole orbit in an extremely obvious elongated elliptical shape?
*Note: I wasn't sure what forum to post this in but figured black holes = gravity = einstein = GR...
I was watching a show on one of DirectTV's Science channels last night about supermassive black holes. They stated the these supermassive black holes exist in two phases : 1. When they are sucking in everything around them (stars, planets, moons, etc). 2. When they aren't sucking in everything around them.
Question: When the supermassive black hole is in Phase 2 (not sucking in stars), how to the stars stay in orbit around the hole? The planets in our solar system orbit the sun in a slightly elliptical manner, rather than perfectly circular. This is due to our sun's gravity accelerating our planets', then pulling it back in, no? I was thinking with a supermassive black hole, wouldn't the stars around that black hole orbit in an extremely obvious elongated elliptical shape?
*Note: I wasn't sure what forum to post this in but figured black holes = gravity = einstein = GR...
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