is planet nine a black hole
By Daniel Clery Feb. 4, 2020 , 12:00 PM. Astronomers believe that Planet 9 is like a Black Hole. While the mass of this black hole would be the same as that of the proposed Planet Nine – up to 10 times Earth's – it would be condensed into a volume roughly the size of an orange. "We find that if Planet Nine is a [black hole], its existence can be discovered by [Legacy Survey of Space and Time] (LSST) due to brief accretion flares powered by small bodies from the Oort cloud, which would be detected at a rate of at least a few per year," the authors write in their paper. Harvard scientists suggest a way to find out. This isn’t an entirely new idea, however. © The Planet 9-black hole theory then explains two mysteries: the trans-Neptunian object anomaly and the OGLE anomaly. “It’s such a small probability, but to have a black hole within reach would be — I think exciting is an understatement,” said Siraj. This big "perturber," if it exists, may be a planet — the so-called " Planet Nine," or "Planet X" or "Planet Next" for those who will always regard Pluto as the ninth planet. Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! This puzzle is what led researchers to calculate how a hidden planet — a world some five to 10 times the mass of Earth and located anywhere from 400 and 1,500 AU from the Sun — may be shepherding these unique TNOs into position. Over the past few years, researchers have noticed an odd clustering in the orbits of multiple trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs), which dwell in the dark depths of the far outer solar system. Astronomers are already scanning the heavens for any sign of Planet Nine, and they should soon be able to hunt for the putative black hole as well, a new study reports. And whatever LSST reveals will be of great interest to astronomers. But then, just last year, scientists thought of another explanation, and it’s straight out of sci-fi. Please deactivate your ad blocker in order to see our subscription offer, My note, arxiv report. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. So it does not surprise that Planet Nine could be a 5 earth mass PBH in some models. Stellar black holes range from about 5 to 30 solar masses. Normally, black holes are extremely difficult to locate. Could a habitable planet orbit a black hole? If Planet Nine Is a Tiny Black Hole, This Is How to Find It Our best bet could be to send a swarm of nanospacecraft — propelled from Earth by a powerful laser — to take a look. Plus, get FREE SHIPPING & BONUS GIFT! If the planet really were a primordial black hole, rather than a planet-sized mass of regular matter, then it would be no use trying to find it with typical planet-searching means. As their name suggests, nothing, including light, can escape their gravitational grasp once it gets too close. Physical Review D (2020). The subject of much speculation, most theories suggest that Planet Nine is a previously undetected planet, but it may also flag the existence of a planet-mass black hole. FYI, the NASA ADS Abstract system has *many* papers published on PBH or primordial black holes. Planet Nine (illustration) NASA The case for Planet Nine being a primordial black hole is being made by Jakub Scholtz at Durham University in the United Kingdom and James Unwin at the University of Illinois at Chicago. But there's another possibility as well: The shepherding object may be a black hole, one that crams all that mass into a sphere the size of a grapefruit. By Jennifer Leman "These two things point at the same mass range," Unwin said. While the latter is several times bigger than the mass of our sun, a primordial black hole can be the size of a planet and may pass by undetected. Some astronomers have suggested that it may be a black hole the size of a Ping-Pong ball. Future US, Inc. 11 West 42nd Street, 15th Floor, And if “Planet Nine” is indeed a black hole, its discovery would have even stranger implications. more from Astronomy's weekly email newsletter. View our Privacy Policy. 5 to 15 earth masses, distances 400 to 800 AU, eccentricity ranging 0.2 to 0.5, etc. The Physics arXiv Blog By The Physics arXiv Blog May 7, 2020 6:00 PM (Credit: Milagli/Shutterstock) Newsletter. But a third type of black hole known as primordial black holes … Thank you for signing up to Space. By signing up you may also receive reader surveys and occasional special offers. NY 10036. Visit our corporate site. The possible existence of Planet Nine and its impact on distant objects in the solar system has fascinated researchers for some time. “It would really open up a new field if we had a black hole in our backyard.”. But cosmological theory suggests that smaller black holes may … Sign up for our email newsletter for the latest science news. All known black holes were formed by collapsing stars or galactic-scale events; they are vastly more massive than any planet. Instead, it could be a tiny black hole. But there is another reason why Planet Nine might be hard to see: because it is not a planet at all. I am no expert on any of this, but wouldn't a black hole of this size radiate away very quickly due to Hawking radiation? There's increasing evidence of another planet out there at the extreme edge of the solar system, but a new analysis suggests that may not be a planet at all. I really find it odd, and disturbing that we can take a picture of a black hole 55 light years away, yet don't know wether we have an extra planet or a grapefruit black hole in our solar system!!! The Sun’s influence stretches far beyond what most people typically think of when it comes to the solar system. You will receive a verification email shortly. A coming sky survey will help test a wild idea — that a grapefruit-sized black hole lurks undiscovered in the outer solar system. Its gravitational effects could explain the unusual clustering of orbits for a group of extreme trans-Neptunian objects (ETNOs), bodies beyond Neptune that orbit the Sun at distances averaging more than 250 times that of the Earth. Instead, they suggest that the solar system could be home to one of the universe’s earliest black holes: a primordial black hole. Planet Nine is a hypothetical planet in the outer region of the Solar System. "Planet Nine could be a five-Earth-mass hamburger," he said. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook. Little is known about free-floating planets and their numbers in the galaxy. "In the vicinity of a black hole, small bodies that approach it will melt as a result of heating from the background accretion of gas from the interstellar medium onto the black hole," study lead author Amir Siraj, an undergraduate astronomy student at Harvard University, said in a statement. Not a supermassive black hole like the one supposedly detected in the centre of the galaxy or even a stellar black hole but a primordial black hole. The primordial black hole hypothesis is admittedly less plausible than a planet or group of small objects causing the orbital anomalies in our solar system. But the existence of these ancient beasts has yet to be confirmed. For example, it took 36 years and about 12 billion miles (19 billion kilometers) for the first human-made object, Voyager 1, to leave our Sun’s protective bubble, called the heliosphere. And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: community@space.com. But even with slim chances of success, the researchers can’t help but hold their breath. Scientists from at Durham University and the University of Illinois at Chicago claim that Planet Nine may not be a planet after all, and instead could be a primordial black hole At the end of 2018, for instance, researchers announced the discovery of the then-most distant TNO known, nicknaming it FarOut. Just a few months later in 2019, the same team trumpeted their discovery of an even more distant TNO, calling it FarFarOut. Both of these are far too massive to account for Planet Nine. The evidence comes from the strange orbits of some smaller objects past Neptune that all seem to be influenced by a bulky, hidden planet far beyond Pluto. An artist’s conception of a flare resulting from the interaction of a comet with a theoretical planet-mass black hole. The Planet 9-black hole theory then explains two mysteries: the trans-Neptunian object anomaly and the OGLE anomaly. There was a problem. Scholtz and Unwin point out that these objects, whose masses coincide with the range proposed for Planet Nine, could be primordial black holes formed from the … “Neither of us expected it to conveniently fall within the range that LSST is going to look at,” Siraj tells Astronomy. This planet has been referred to as Planet X or Planet Nine and is thought to be about five to 20 times larger than Earth. Instead, astronomers say one possibility is that it might be a primordial black hole, left over from the Big Bang but captured by the sun. Constraints on Earth-mass primordial black holes from OGLE 5-year microlensing events. While the latter is several times bigger than the mass of our sun, a primordial black hole can be the size of a planet and may pass by undetected. DOI: 10.1016/j.physrep.2019.01.009. Astronomers just have to keep searching and there's a growing consensus that it will be discovered in the not-so-distant future. It could be a primordial black hole — and with Planet Nine’s suspected super-Earth status, that black hole would only be roughly the size of a grapefruit. SpaceX launches 60 new Starlink satellites to orbit, nails rocket landing at sea, On This Day in Space! Vera Rubin (Observatory) aims to deliver the final verdict. Are there more like it?". For example, LSST data will allow astronomers to probe the nature of mysterious dark energy and dark matter, find and track large numbers of potentially hazardous asteroids and study our Milky Way galaxy's formation and evolution, among other things. We do not sell, rent or trade our email lists. Therefore, it isn’t surprising to learn that scientists are still finding new icy objects orbiting well beyond Neptune, known as Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs). Researchers from Harvard University have published a paper that explores the possibility that our solar system is home to a tiny, ancient black hole. Some scientists have hypothesized that the TNOs' paths have been sculpted by the gravitational pull of a big object way out there, something five to 10 times more massive than Earth (though others think the TNOs may just be tugging on each other). Mike Wall is the author of "Out There" (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for alien life. Volcanoes could have breathed new life into a super-Earth’s atmosphere, Mission to the Centaurs: Exploring strange astroid-comet hybrids. "These two things point at the same mass range," Unwin said. How did it obtain its properties? To look for evidence of Planet Nine, the team will search for accretion flares, which are bursts of energy that occur when a comet passes close to a black hole and begins to melt and produce gases. Is there a “Planet Nine” lurking at the fringes of the solar system? Because it isn't a planet, but rather a black hole. Black holes absorb any light which passes beyond their event horizon, so they’re hard to spot. Planet Nine is a hypothetical planet in the outer region of the Solar System. If Planet Nine really was a tiny black hole, it would explain why astronomers have been having such a difficult time locating it - not only would it be imperceptibly small, but it would also be invisible. Searches for Planet Nine have come up empty – but this is no surprise because at that distance, even a large and reflective planet would be barely detectable with the kind of wide-field-of-view telescopes used for large-area surveys. We take these objects to be primordial black holes (PBHs) and point out the orbits of TNOs would be altered if one of these PBHs was captured by the Solar System, inline with the Planet 9 hypothesis. It sounds like a crazy idea, but it isn't outside the realm of possibility. Did it shape the solar system history? If Planet 9 Is Actually a Black Hole, It Completely Changes How We Understand Our Universe And get this: The thing could be smaller than a soccer ball. Hence the suggestion that Planet 9 might not be a normal planet at all but a black hole. Please refresh the page and try again. Specifically, the new method would scour the outer solar system for evidence of telltale flares that are emitted when a black hole devours a comet or other distant object. https://science.howstuffworks.com/planet-nine-black-hole.htm "It immediately raises questions: Why is it there? Now, Harvard scientists have proposed a way to determine, once and for all, whether Planet Nine actually could be a black hole.