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Dark Matter Black Holes Could Fly through the Solar System Once a Decade (www.scientificamerican.com)

submitted 1 month ago by onlinepersona@programming.dev to c/astronomy@mander.xyz

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Black holes the size of an atom that contain the mass of an asteroid may fly through the inner solar system about once a decade, scientists say. Theoretically created just after the big bang, these examples of so-called primordial black holes could explain the missing dark matter thought to dominate our universe. And if they sneak by the moon or Mars, scientists should be able to detect them, a new study shows.

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[–] superkret@feddit.org 12 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

If dark matter is fully explained by such black holes, their most likely mass, according to some theories, would range from 10^17^ to 10^23^ grams—or about that of a large asteroid.

In case this doesn't tell you a lot, 10^17^ grams is half the weight of Mount Everest, and 10^23^ grams is 4x the weight of the Antarctic ice shield.

[–] remotelove@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

The earth is estimated to "weigh" 13,170,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 pounds. (That is weird when you think about it. The weight of the earth being based on what something weighs on earth, I mean.)

Mt. Everest is only about 357,000,000,000,000 pounds and is just a tiny fraction of the mass of the earth.

So. My point is that we need a better way to portray scale of things in the universe. AUs work to a point but then we have to quickly move to parsecs. Parsecs quickly give way to light years. (Or vice-versa, depending on how you visualize things better.) Light years kinda work, but only for between 14-26 billion years. Even after all of that, I can hardly still fathom the size of Mt. Everest. (This was a rant, but not an angry rant.)

[–] floofloof@lemmy.ca 11 points 1 month ago (1 children)

The earth is estimated to "weigh" 13,170,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 pounds.

Mt. Everest is only 357,000,000,000,000 pounds

My point is that we need a better way to portray scale of things in the universe.

Well, for a start, God uses the metric system.

[–] Mr_Blott@feddit.uk 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Fuckin everyone uses the metric system

[–] RandomVideos@programming.dev 5 points 1 month ago

Even aliens building the pyramids used the metric system

[–] Gork@lemm.ee 4 points 1 month ago (2 children)

What would happen if one of these tiny black holes hit Earth? The article doesn't really talk about it.

[–] deegeese@sopuli.xyz 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Passing near the earth, we’d get some strange tides. Passing through the earth, it would eat earth.

[–] Rhaedas@fedia.io 9 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Nonsense. The event horizon on such things is incredibly small, as is the mass vs. that of Earth.

[–] deegeese@sopuli.xyz 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

You don’t need the event horizon, you just need local gravity around 1G. For the masses described in the article, that radius is from hundreds of meters to 10s of kilometers.

[–] Rhaedas@fedia.io 3 points 1 month ago

Which still wouldn't do what you suggest. The mass is the same, so it has the same effect from a distance. Unless by "eat earth" you meant it would take in dirt until it suck to the core, still about the same mass.

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[–] onlinepersona@programming.dev 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Would a regular asteroid be able to wobble the earth as described in this article? Or is it just black holes that should do so?

I seem to remember reading that primordial black holes weren't yet a proven phenomenon and I have trouble imagining them myself. Wouldn't they have hawking radiation too which we would be able to detect?

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