Mars could become an indicator of primordial black holes – it will “shudder” as it passes through the Solar System

Hypothetical primordial black holes have never discovered themselves, and scientists are thinking about how to do this. Mars could be a natural indicator of such objects in the solar system, according to scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The passage of the primordial black hole through our system would cause a deviation of the orbit of Mars by 1 meter, which is easily discernible today. However, such a discovery requires a little more luck and patience.

Artist’s representation of a primordial black hole orbiting Mars. Image source: Benjamin Lehmann, MIT

Calculations show that if primordial black holes exist and at least somehow correspond to the ideas of scientists, then they fly through the Solar System approximately once every ten years. In this case, you will have to be patient and prepare if you set a goal to witness this phenomenon.

According to the most common modern ideas, primordial black holes could have formed in the first fractions of a second after the Big Bang from collapsing clouds of gas and then scattered throughout the Universe. Each primary black hole is actually a mass concentrated at one point in space, comparable to the mass of an asteroid. Asteroids in the Solar System also influence the orbits of planets, including Mars, but due to their relatively small size and mass, this influence is extremely weak and over a very long period of time.

Primordial black holes have one decisive advantage in this regard. They fly through the Solar System at a speed of about 200 km/s, which has a fairly strong, one-time impact on the orbits of the planets they cross. According to the analysis, to deviate the orbit of Mars by one meter, the primordial black hole must fly past it at a distance of 450 million km. Other planets, including the Earth and the Moon, are less suitable for detecting primordial black holes in this way. The point is not about Mars itself, but about the fact that it is the most observed planet in the solar system today. Rovers move on its surface, and stations fly in orbit, with which they constantly maintain multifaceted communications. This allows direct measurements of the orbital motion of the Red Planet with an accuracy of up to 10 cm.

It’s funny that the idea to use Mars as a detector of primordial black holes was born from a question from an MIT scientist about what would happen to a person if a primordial black hole flashed within a meter of him. The scientist calculated that the person would be thrown six meters in one second. Someone’s curiosity has been transformed into serious work, which (if you’re lucky!) can lead to the discovery of primordial black holes and even reveal the secret of dark matter, which may well turn out to be those same primordial black holes, and not a mysterious substance.

Today, a lot of observational data on asteroids in the Solar System has been accumulated, and the volume of this information is constantly growing. These data will help assess the influence of these celestial bodies on the orbits of the planets and pave the way for an experiment to detect a primordial black hole.