Do Black Holes Suck in Material?

A very common misconception in astronomy is that of black holes sucking in material.  Before debunking this misconception, let me explain the basics of black holes.  A black hole is an infinitesimally small object with a large amount of mass packed into that space.  Since the force of gravity is so large, nothing, not even light can escape, hence the term black hole.  You can theoretically get as close to the black hole as the event horizon.  The event horizon is a distance from the black hole that is equal to 3 times the black hole's mass in solar masses.  Thus if a black hole has a mass of 5 suns, the event horizon is about 15 km.

Artist's conception of a black hole.

Now back to the misconception.  Black holes do NOT suck in material like a vacuum cleaner.  If the Sun were replaced by a black hole of exactly the same mass, the Earth would not care.  Earth would continue moving around the center of mass (now the black hole) once every 365 years.  Objects can, however, fall into a black hole due to orbital decline from frictional forces.  Stuff does fall into black holes, but the black hole doesn't suck in or pull in the material.  A black hole is an object with mass and in terms of gravity, acts just like any other object with mass.