From: jsfmiller@1netzero.net.retro.com   
      
   Bill Jones wrote:   
   > Generally, when the BH stops 'feeding', substantial portion of its   
   > galaxy will remain.   
   >   
   > Is it possible that BH's exist which have 'eaten' their entire   
   > galaxies?   
   > If so, what might be the properties of such BH's?   
   >   
   > regards, Bill J.   
      
   Black holes, supermassive or "normal" operate only on their local environment.   
   At interstellar distances, the gravitational pull of such an object is no   
   different than a mass or collection of masses of normal material of the same   
   mass.  For example, at the core of our galaxy may exist a supermassive black   
   hole with mass on the order of 1 to 5 million times the mass of the Sun.  Its   
   gravitational pull is no different on us than if there were 1 to 5 million   
   stars, all with the mass of our Sun, located in the same spot.  We are under no   
   immediate threat of being pulled in there because of our forward momentum in   
   our   
   orbit around the center of the galaxy.  The same is true for the rest of the   
   galaxy.   
      
   So, the probability is quite low that a supermassive black hole would have had   
   the time to both form and gobble up its host galaxy in the lifetime estimates   
   of   
   our universe.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)