Objects born in the first second after the Big Bang could just glide by and shake the planets in our Solar System.
According to Science Alert, a research team led by astrophysicist Tung Tran from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has revealed that every 10 years, our Solar System welcomes an invisible and frightening guest that is over 13.8 billion years old.
These are primordial black holes (PBHs), hypothetical objects that may have been created in the first second after the Big Bang event that birthed the universe.
Primordial black holes may have flown past the Solar System multiple times, causing the planets to wobble, especially Mars – (AI Illustration: ANH THƯ).
Primordial black holes formed from dense pockets of ionized matter collapsing and dispersing throughout the universe over the past 13.8 billion years.
According to MIT researchers, these objects weigh as much as an asteroid, yet their size is only that of an atom.
Nevertheless, these tiny monsters are capable of shaking the planets in the Solar System with a glide speed of up to 200 km/s, exhibiting the power of a black hole.
In a publication in the scientific journal Physical Review D, the research team simulated the potential impacts that could occur if a primordial black hole passed by Mercury, Venus, and Mars.
It is strong enough to shake all of these planets, but Mars would provide the clearest signal, as it is also the planet that Earth observers can most easily monitor.
If such a black hole approached Mars within about 450 million kilometers, it would cause detectable oscillations in the planet’s orbit.
This displacement would be about 1 meter over 10 years, which is sufficient for sensors to detect, as we can measure the distance from Mars to Earth with an accuracy of about 10 centimeters.
The researchers also considered the possibility of a primordial black hole approaching the Earth-Moon system, although the effects would not be as pronounced.
“There are many other dynamics in the Solar System that could act as a kind of friction, causing the oscillations to diminish,” the authors explained.
Therefore, humanity can be quite reassured and should focus on observing Mars to detect these uninvited guests, which could help us understand more about dark matter – a type of matter that is abundant throughout the universe but remains extremely mysterious.
