Many researchers suggest that dark matter may be composed of unknown particles, but no experiment to date has discovered new particles that might be dark matter.
Black holes get their name from their immense gravitational pulls, which are so powerful that not even light can escape.
If a black hole does not give away its existence — for instance, by ripping apart a star — it may remain undetected against the black of space.
Over the decades, astronomers have detected many black holes, from stellar-mass black holes typically about five to 10 times the sun’s mass to supermassive black holes millions to billions of solar masses in size.
Previous research suggested that primordial black holes that survived to the present day could make up most or all of dark matter.
In principle, a primordial black hole’s gravitational pull “could produce wobbles in the orbits of objects in the solar system that are big enough for us to measure.”
The scientists ended up focusing on primordial black holes flying near the inner planets of the solar system — Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars.
They found that if primordial black holes exist, they may be abundant enough for at least one to fly by the inner worlds once per decade.
This approach of looking for primordial black holes via their gravitational effects is “not completely sufficient to distinguish between a primordial black hole and some other unusual object of a similar mass,” Geller cautioned.
She noted that if this strategy does detect a potential primordial black hole, “we can trigger follow-up observations to rule out other possibilities.
A recent study finds that if microscopic black holes, as some researchers believe, exist, then at least one may fly through the solar system every ten years, producing minute gravitational distortions that are detectable by scientists.
Astronomers may be able to unravel the mystery surrounding dark matter, the invisible substance that many believe comprises roughly five-sixths of all matter in the universe, if they can find and verify the presence of such gravitational disruptions, as suggested by these results.
Although many scientists speculate that dark matter could consist of unidentified particles, no experiment has found any new particles that could be dark matter to date. Because of this, one possibility that scientists are investigating to explain dark matter is the existence of “primordial black holes,” or black holes that have existed since the beginning of time.
Previous studies indicate that dark matter, an almost invisible substance, makes up approximately 86% of the universe’s matter. It is known that dark matter exists because of its gravitational pull on ordinary matter and light, but scientists are still unsure of its possible composition.
The enormous gravitational pull that black holes have—so strong that not even light can escape—gives them their name. Should a black hole fail to reveal itself, such as by destroying a star, it might go unnoticed amidst the darkness of space.
Many black holes have been found by astronomers over the years, ranging in size from supermassive black holes that are millions to billions of solar masses to stellar-mass black holes that are usually five to ten times the mass of the sun. On the other hand, the new study looked at primordial black holes, which prior research indicates may only have around 110 billion to 110 million billion tons (100 billion to 100 million billion metric tons) of mass, which is roughly the mass of a typical asteroid.
Space . com was informed by study co-author Sarah Geller, a theoretical physicist at the University of California at Santa Cruz, that “the black holes we consider in our work are at least 10 billion times lighter than the sun, and are barely larger in size than a hydrogen atom.”.
When an object is so dense that its own gravity causes it to collapse, a black hole is created. Previous research indicates that random fluctuations in the density of matter in the early universe caused some clumps to become dense enough to form black holes soon after the Big Bang, before the universe expanded greatly in size.
Dark matter may consist mostly or entirely of primordial black holes that have survived to the present day, according to earlier research. Based on these findings, a recent study investigated the frequency with which primordial black holes might travel through our solar system and whether or not they might have any effects on observable objects that scientists could measure.
“Geller asserted that if there are numerous black holes in the universe, some of them must undoubtedly occasionally pass through our backyard.”.
As per Geller, at first, the researchers “pondered over the possible outcomes if a black hole broke through the Earth’s crust, entered our atmosphere, or created a crater on the moon.”. We even considered the possibility of a human being being struck by one of these tiny black holes. “.”.
But “all these concepts encountered the same issue,” as Geller put it. “In the vastness of space, a person, the moon, or even Earth is a very small target, and the likelihood of a black hole ever hitting them directly is extremely low. ****.
Geller stated that what was required was a system that was both large enough to allow black holes to pass by on a regular basis and precisely measured enough to allow for the observation of some effect. At that point, we began to consider the extremely accurate orbits of solar system objects that were measured. The gravitational pull of a primordial black hole “may, in theory, cause orbits of solar system objects to wobble in a way that is measurement-able.”. “.”.
Ultimately, the researchers concentrated on early black holes that were passing close to Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars, the inner planets of the solar system. If primordial black holes exist, they might be plentiful enough for at least one to pass by the inner worlds once every ten years, according to their findings. They also mentioned that since technologies to detect these kinds of disruptions have become available, there may have already been multiple flybys.
Geller issued a warning: “We are not claiming that primordial black holes are unquestionably real, that they comprise the majority of dark matter, or that they are unquestionably present in our solar system. Rather, they assert that if the majority of dark matter is composed of primordial black holes, then one must travel through the inner solar system every ten to twenty years. “.”.
The scientists pointed out that their conclusions are based on computer simulations that are comparatively simple and lack the accuracy required to examine actual data regarding orbits in the inner solar system.
Benjamin Lehmann, a theoretical physicist at MIT and study co-author, told Space . com, “To make definitive statements, we’ll need to work with colleagues who specialize in modeling the solar system with much more sophisticated computational methods.”. He continued by saying that they also needed to determine how to distinguish between signals that could actually be from a primordial black hole and those that might just be within the usual measurement error range.
Presently, the scientists are talking about working together to analyze available orbital data through cooperation with the Paris Observatory’s solar system simulation group. According to Lehmann, “they are among the leading authorities on the complex simulation techniques that will be required to make this analysis a reality.”. The next step will be to determine which follow-up observations are most appropriate for any signal that we may detect once we have a fully functional model that can be used to search through actual data. “.”.
Geller warned that using the gravitational effects of primordial black holes to search for them is “not completely sufficient to distinguish between a primordial black hole and some other unusual object of a similar mass.”. Should this approach identify a possible primordial black hole, she said, “we can initiate additional observations to exclude alternative scenarios.”. In contrast, a small black hole would probably show nothing at all to the naked eye through a telescope, but astronomers are in fact incredibly good at finding even much lighter objects in our solar system, such as small asteroids. “.”.
