Study suggests PBH may make planets and moons near us wobble.
In a recent study that deeply concerned astronomers, scientists have put forth a fascinating hypothesis: incredibly small black holes originating from the early stages of the universe may be causing disturbances in our cosmic vicinity, leading planets and moons to sway and shift in their orbits. These mysterious gravitational entities, if proven to exist, could be passing by the solar system approximately every ten years, causing disruptions in their path.
The concept of these ancient black holes, remnants from the universe’s inception, hiding undetected in the vastness of space, is enough to evoke a sense of unease. However, the potential repercussions of their existence are even more disconcerting. If these cosmic anomalies are indeed present and if they interact with our solar system as frequently as suggested by the study, they might significantly affect the delicate dance of celestial bodies in our planetary surroundings.
The findings of scientists’ research are explored in the paper titled “Close encounters of the primordial kind: a new observable for primordial black holes as dark matter.”
The authors of the paper wrote that “Primordial black holes (PBHs) remain a viable dark matter candidate in the asteroid-mass range. We point out that in this scenario, the PBH abundance would be large enough for at least one object to cross through the inner solar system per decade.”
“Since Solar System ephemerides are modeled and measured with extremely high precision, such close encounters could produce detectable perturbations to orbital trajectories with characteristic features. We evaluate this possibility with a suite of simple Solar System simulations, and we argue that the abundance of asteroid-mass PBHs can plausibly be probed by existing and near-future data.”