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View submission: Ask Anything Wednesday - Physics, Astronomy, Earth and Planetary Science
Because black holes are much smaller, light can get much closer than it could to the original star. It is only at very close distances -- distances which would have been *inside* the star when it was still around -- that light cannot escape.
If the Sun were suddenly replaced by a black hole of equal mass (never mind the complications involved in that), it wouldn't suck in the Earth or other planets, they'd continue orbiting exactly as they are because the rules of gravity are the same for stars and black holes at these kinds of distances.
There's nothing here!