<p>Black holes do not swallow and rip apart everything that passes close to it. Instead, black holes pull on the orbiting star, turning it into a &quot;teardrop&quot; shape at closest approach. The tidal forces acting upon the star are high enough for the star to begin losing mass to the black hole. However, as the star only is close to the black hole for only a short period of time, only 3 Jupiter masses of gas is stripped away from the star (check <a href="https://www.space.com/old-faithful-galaxy-outbursts-114-days" rel="nofollow noreferrer">here</a>). If the star were closer, more mass would be sucked away from the star, making mass loss faster.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-01-23T14:19:29.890Z
2021-01-23T14:19:29.890Z
WarpPrime
<p>Black holes don't &quot;suck things in&quot;, they pull on things gravitationally with their mass, same as any other object. You might as well ask why the Sun doesn't suck the Earth in. The natural thing is for objects to orbit, not collide with, stars or black holes.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-01-23T11:31:00.630Z
2021-01-23T11:31:00.630Z
Kristoffer Sjöö
<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/yAs2I.gif" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/yAs2I.gif" alt="enter image description here" /></a></p>
<p>Researchers saw repeated outbursts — every 114 days, on average — in a galaxy some 570 million
light-years away from Earth. Here outburst because of black hole draws mass off from the galaxy?</p>
<p>Location: Galaxy ESO 253-3.</p>
<p>Why does black hole draw off some mass from orbiting star instead of sucking it? As we all know black hole sucks things instead of weird behavior like this.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-01-23T07:37:58.720Z
Re *As we all know black hole sucks things instead of weird behavior like this.* We do not know this. It is a widespread misconception that black holes are huge vacuum cleaners in space.
David Hammen
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-01-23T08:06:49.947Z
ArXiv preprint: [ASASSN-14ko is a Periodic Nuclear Transient in ESO 253-G003](https://arxiv.org/abs/2009.03321)
David Hammen
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-01-23T14:45:46.473Z
Related, possible duplicate: https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/q/10609/16685 Also see https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/q/24064/16685
PM 2Ring
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-01-24T06:52:23.400Z
While related, those are not proper duplicates. A proper answer should explain not only the misconception but also should explain the marked periodicity.
David Hammen
<black-hole>
Why does black hole draw off some mass from orbiting star instead of sucking it?
Maxx Lords
# Why does black hole draw off some mass from orbiting star instead of sucking it?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2021-01-23)

[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/yAs2I.gif)](https://i.sstatic.net/yAs2I.gif)

Researchers saw repeated outbursts — every 114 days, on average — in a galaxy some 570 million
light-years away from Earth. Here outburst because of black hole draws mass off from the galaxy?

Location: Galaxy ESO 253-3.

Why does black hole draw off some mass from orbiting star instead of sucking it? As we all know black hole sucks things instead of weird behavior like this.

**Tags:** black-hole

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Re *As we all know black hole sucks things instead of weird behavior like this.* We do not know this. It is a widespread misconception that black holes are huge vacuum cleaners in space.  
> **username_1**: ArXiv preprint: [ASASSN-14ko is a Periodic Nuclear Transient in ESO 253-G003](https://arxiv.org/abs/2009.03321)  
> **username_2**: Related, possible duplicate: https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/q/10609/16685 Also see https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/q/24064/16685  
> **username_1**: While related, those are not proper duplicates. A proper answer should explain not only the misconception but also should explain the marked periodicity.  

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## 2 answers

### Answer by username_3 on 2021-01-23. Score: 1 | Accepted answer

Black holes do not swallow and rip apart everything that passes close to it. Instead, black holes pull on the orbiting star, turning it into a "teardrop" shape at closest approach. The tidal forces acting upon the star are high enough for the star to begin losing mass to the black hole. However, as the star only is close to the black hole for only a short period of time, only 3 Jupiter masses of gas is stripped away from the star (check [here](https://www.space.com/old-faithful-galaxy-outbursts-114-days)). If the star were closer, more mass would be sucked away from the star, making mass loss faster.


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### Answer by username_4 on 2021-01-23. Score: 1

Black holes don't "suck things in", they pull on things gravitationally with their mass, same as any other object. You might as well ask why the Sun doesn't suck the Earth in. The natural thing is for objects to orbit, not collide with, stars or black holes.


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