Planet 9 or the mini black hole in the solar system

ESO astronomers have discovered the nearest black hole to Earth at a distance of 1000 light years, but there could also be a tiny one in our solar system that is 5-10 times the mass of the sun

A few days ago, astronomers from the European Southern Observatory (ESO) and other institutes reported that they had discovered a relatively close-to-earth black hole. It is “only” 1000 light years away, so that the closest black hole so far, and invisible part of a triple system that still consists of two visible companion stars.

The observations of the HR 6819, initially considered a two-body system in the southern constellation Telescopium with the FEROS spectrograph on the MPG / ESO 2.2-meter telescope in La Silla, showed that one star orbits an invisible object, the other star is far from the two. “An invisible object with a mass that is at least four times the size of the sun can only be a black hole,” says ESO scientist Thomas Rivinius.

So far, only a few black holes have been discovered in the Milky Way, which can be identified by the release of strong X-rays. Scientists suspect that many more stars became black holes. The discovery of the silent black hole in HR 6819, which is really black and invisible because it doesn’t “swallow” any matter, could lead astronomers to the search for more: “There must be hundreds of millions of black holes, but we only know about very few. If we know what to look for, we should be better able to find them, “says Rivinius. So the astronomers suspect theirs report published in Astronomy & Astrophysics that perhaps the LB-1 system further away from Earth could also be a three-body system.

Since Pluto is no longer considered a planet, but only a dwarf planet among others, speculation is made about a planet 9 or it is searched for (in search of planet 9). Although this was not observed, astronomers deduced its existence from the existence of deviations in the orbits of transneptunical objects (sednoids). Planet 9 is located on the edge of the solar system, far beyond the orbit of Neptune.

For some it should be a big planet. But it also came Conjectures on that it could be a black hole, which would also be the reason why you can’t see it. The mass is five to ten times larger than that of the sun, but it could be a tiny black hole – just 5 cm in size. So far, however, no observations of interactions, for example with surrounding dark matter, have been made, which indicate its existence.

Now has like that Discover Magazine writes Ed Witten developed an original idea by the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. If you can’t see anything from Earth, you could send a fleet of mini-spaceships in the direction you suspect the mini-black hole is, and then see if they unexpectedly reject what they are Would give clues to the effect of gravity of the black hole.

Anyhow, a five centimeter object would be difficult to find at such a great distance. An armada of tiny spaceships covering a larger space and containing a chip that radio their positional data back to Earth could make the deviation from some more likely the hypothesis of such a mini-black hole. It’s just a shame that the swarms of mini spacecraft necessary for this don’t (yet) exist.

This would require a laser beam that acts as a drive for the mini spacecraft and accelerates it ever further. A technique that is about the initiative Breakthrough Starshot wants to develop to explore Alpha Centauri. It would be necessary for the laser beam to accelerate the spaceships to a speed of hundreds of kilometers per second. The biggest problem for Witten is that the tiny spaceships have to carry a high-precision watch with them: “A sufficiently precise time measurement in a tiny spaceship should be the biggest obstacle for this Being a project, “says Witten. But it is also questionable who should finance such a mission, the cost of which could run into the billions – just to prove a mini black hole or to falsify the hypothesis?
(Florian Rötzer)

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