Astronomer Dr. Rebecca Smethurst at the University of Oxford (UK) suggests that there may be a black hole lurking just outside our Solar System.
The famous physicist Albert Einstein first predicted the existence of black holes in his theory of relativity, although he himself remained skeptical about whether they truly existed. Since then, astronomers have been trying to gather evidence to confirm their existence.
According to scientists, black holes are regions in the universe with such strong gravitational pull that nothing can escape from them. Anything that falls into a black hole formed from a dying star will be torn apart.
By tracing the history of formation and evolution of massive stars in the universe, scientists can estimate how many black holes exist in a specific area. It is estimated that there are about 10 million black holes scattered throughout the Milky Way galaxy, and they may even be closer than we think.
For a long time, black holes existed only as a hypothesis and had never been directly observed. The main reason is that nothing escapes their intense gravitational pull, including light. However, in 2019, humanity captured an image of a black hole for the first time. This was the supermassive black hole at the center of Messier 87 (M87), an elliptical galaxy approximately 53 million light-years away from Earth.
The black hole in M87 has a diameter of 40 billion kilometers, which is 3 million times larger than Earth, and its mass is 6.5 billion times that of the Sun. Scientists refer to it as a “monster” black hole.
Some black holes are believed to have existed since the universe was born.
“Black holes are like prisons for all matter. Some black holes are thought to have existed since the universe was born, known as primordial black holes, while others are essentially remnants of dead stars. Similarly, there are many stars hanging around the galaxy, so there are many black holes around the galaxy,” Dr. Rebecca Smethurst stated.
According to Smethurst, black holes can move through space, and there may even be a black hole lurking just beyond the edge of our Solar System. “It’s similar to the idea that there’s a planet with life out there that we haven’t discovered yet,” Smethurst said.
“However, this shouldn’t be alarming. I think it’s just there, not pulling anything towards it. We are already orbiting a black hole. We shouldn’t worry about the Solar System being swallowed by a black hole,” Dr. Smethurst added.
Previously, a group of scientists from several renowned research institutes, such as the Harvard & Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (USA) and the European Southern Observatory (ESO), used the Very Large Telescope in Chile to discover a black hole hiding in the dark space just outside the Milky Way.
The discovered black hole has a mass at least nine times that of the Sun and orbits a star like a disguised planet. It is believed to be “hibernating,” meaning it is inactive and has stopped “feeding,” making it completely invisible.
