A recent new article published by Durham University and the University of Illinois in Chicago suggests that what was once thought to be an invisible planet at the edge of the solar system is in fact an ancient black hole. Scientists argue that the new finding explains the phenomena occurring more clearly than anything previously suggested.
The article caused a whole wave of debate in the scientific community, since many other researchers have long expressed concern about the results of observations of the outer objects of the solar system. According to them, many objects in the area have “strange” gravity anomalies in their orbits.
The concern grew even more when scientists began to interpret the data obtained during the Polish-American astronomical experiment to study dark matter using the method of gravitational microlensing (Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment, OGLE, literally Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment).
The essence of the experiment was that rather large masses, for example, neutron stars and black holes, with their gravitational field, slightly change the direction of propagation of electromagnetic radiation, just as an ordinary lens changes the direction of a light beam.
Previously, such lensing was observed only in supermassive objects, such as star clusters or giant black holes in the centers of galaxies, however, with the advent of supersensitive optical matrices, such a thing as microlensing appeared.
Its essence lies in the fact that when an invisible object playing the role of a lens passes between the Earth and some observable background bright object, this object gives a very weak, microscopic increase in brightness. Astronomers learned to register this increase, which allowed them to detect many such lens objects around them.
And as the OGLE experiment on gravitational microlensing showed, there is an invisible, but very massive object on the outer edge of the solar system, which apparently gives inexplicable bursts of brightness of the background stars observed through it. According to scientists, this object is the so-called primordial black hole.
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Commonly observed black holes form as a result of the gravitational collapse of large stars with enormous mass. However, there are also black holes that have existed since the creation of the Universe and were formed at the time of the Big Bang. Their masses may be less than the solar mass and comparable to the masses of large planets. Such objects exist purely theoretically, since they cannot be seen. So, a primordial black hole with the mass of the Earth will be the size of a tennis ball, and conditionally only the gravitational lens surrounding the black hole will be visible.
The potential existence of a black hole floating somewhere on the edge of the solar system raises the question of whether the Earth and the surrounding planets will ever be sucked into it.
Moreover, what most increased the fears of scientists - the gravitational lens found by the OGLE project is now in the same area where the supposed Planet 9 should be located, which deforms the orbits of objects on the outer edge of the solar system.
The estimated distance to this black hole is 56 billion miles (90 billion kilometers). It is more than ten times farther than Pluto, but by astronomical standards, the distance is very small. In this case, we are not talking about the distance to the asteroid, but about the distance to a black hole with an unknown mass, which can have both the mass of the Earth and the mass of a small galaxy.
Scholtz is now trying to allay fears, who in an interview with Express.co.uk says:
“For normal black holes, you must have at least one solar mass, since a normal black hole is the final stage in the life of a large star. But primordial black holes can be many orders of magnitude lighter, for example with the mass of the Earth. Then this black hole will be the size of a tennis ball and you and I have nothing to worry about."
However, James Unwin of the University of Illinois expresses a completely different opinion:
“The solutions to the anomalies of gravitational equations, in which the anomaly is caused by either a planet or a black hole, are very similar, so one cannot say with certainty that“this is a black hole”or that“this is a planet”. However, the solution in any case assumes a mass much greater than the mass of the Earth, and if at such a distance from us there was a planet with such a mass, it would be visible."
Professor Unwin and lead researcher at Durham University Jakub Scholz believe that the presence of a black hole at the edge of the solar system is generally easier to explain and understand than the presence of a huge planet there. If such a planet really exists there, it will require a complete rethinking of the mechanism of formation of planets and planetary systems.
Interestingly, according to scientists, a black hole at the edge of the solar system can be observed. Its image can be obtained by capturing bursts of gamma radiation from its microhalo, which surrounds a black hole and is made of dark matter. Fatal interactions between the black hole and the surrounding space debris can also be recorded, which astronomers will see as "light sources in the sky."
At the moment, a newer study by astronomers is at the stage of revision and they do not reveal the details, but hint that the "gamma-annihilation signals" that the black hole should generate could be detected by devices such as the Fermi space telescope or the Chandra X-ray observatory.