What if the Sun became a black hole? (artist's impression)

Our Sun is too small a star to end its life as a black hole. But what would happen if the Sun were suddenly replaced with a black hole of the same mass? Contrary to popular belief, the Solar System would not be sucked in: a solar-mass black hole would exert no more gravitational pull than our Sun. As this computer simulation shows, the planets would actually continue on in their orbits as if nothing had happened.