Not once has a single black hole
disturbed our planetary routine.
But what if it did?
This is WHAT IF,
and here's what would happen
if a black hole appeared in our Solar System.
Black holes aren't exactly holes.
They're a large amount of matter
that has been crammed
into a very small space.
Being so compressed gives them an
incredibly strong gravitational pull.
Not even light can escape a black hole's grasp.
And if you get too close to a black hole,
you yourself would get compressed
to an infinitely small dot.
A black hole entering our Solar
System would not be good news.
But just how bad would it be?
The extent of the havoc that a single black
hole would wreak on the Solar System
depends on how big that black hole was,
and how far into the Solar System it got.
If we're talking a supermassive black hole,
like the one residing at the
center of our Milky Way galaxy,
our chances of survival are slim.
A monster that size
would cause us trouble
even from a distance of a few light years away.
Presumably, supermassive
black holes have stars, planets,
asteroids and comets orbiting around them.
All the debris that a supermassive black
hole picked up on its way through space
would bombard our Solar System.
Then, that gigantic black hole would tug
whatever was left into an orbit around it.
We'd be long gone by that time,
wiped out by some rogue
planet that smashed into Earth.
Let's try our chances
with a stellar black hole.
This is a black hole that's up to
20 times more massive than our Sun.
If this kind of black hole made it to the
outer reaches of the Solar System,
it would cause a gravitational
mess in the Oort cloud -
the area of icy, comet-like objects. 
A stellar black hole would hurl
more comets and asteroids
into the inner Solar System,
where they could strike the planets.
Earth might take some hits, too.
But that would be just a warm-up.
As the black hole made its
way through the Solar System,
it would disrupt the
orbits of all the planets in it.
Likely, our space intruder would
tangle the biggest planet in the system.
The black hole would pull all
the gas from the giant planet,
turning it into a swirling hot disk.
It would keep pulling until
it consumed Jupiter entirely.
What would happen to our own
planet in this gravitational mess?
Things wouldn't be good for Earth.
The black hole would start affecting
us even from a distance of Pluto's orbit.
First, it would pull us out
of the habitable zone,
and we humans might not be
ready to adapt to this change.
We wouldn't have much
time to complain though,
since there would be worse things ahead.
As the black hole approaches Earth,
it would cause the cracking
of the planet's crust.
We'd see extreme earthquakes
and volcanic eruptions.
The ocean tides would
be devastating, too.
By the time the black
hole passed Earth's orbit,
there would be nothing left of our planet
but a sterile surface paved with magma.
Maybe Earth would be ejected
from the Solar System altogether.
That would probably be for the best,
because when the black hole
got close enough to the Sun,
it would start drinking
up the Sun's flaming gas,
and pulling our center of
gravity into its insatiable stomach.
If somehow, Earth stuck
around for the afterparty,
it would be torn to shreds and
consumed by the black hole.
Luckily, black holes don't seem to
be very numerous in the Universe.
The chances are better for a rogue
planet to enter our Solar System.
But that's a story for another WHAT IF.
