Tiny Black Holes Are Passing Through Our Bodies

Bright Side

Ever wondered if something super weird is happening to you right now? Well, scientists think tiny black holes—yep, actual black holes—might be zipping through our bodies all the time! These mini black holes are way smaller than atoms, so we don’t feel a thing when they pass through. Luckily, they don’t gobble us up like the giant ones in space, because their gravity is too weak. But if we could somehow detect them, it might prove some wild theories about the universe. So next time you feel a little off, just blame it on a passing black hole!  Credit: Gaia optics: By Space Travel Blog / Rute Marta Jansone / Marie-Liis Aru, CC BY 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ , https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gaia_optics.jpg Gaia’s stellar motion for the next 400 thousand years: By European Space Agency, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/igo/ , https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gaia%E2%80%99s_stellar_motion_for_the_next_400_thousand_years,_ESA22358019.webm NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, https://science.nasa.gov/ : Primordial Black Holes: By Scott Wiessinger, https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14524#media_group_374083 NASA's Fermi Links Cosmic Neutrino to Monster Black Hole: By Scott Wiessinger, https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/12994#media_group_326187 Turning Black Holes into Dark Matter Labs: By Scott Wiessinger, https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11894/#media_group_344110 Hubble Makes Unexpected Dark Matter Discovery: By Paul R. Morris, https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/13713#media_group_319111 CC BY-SA 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ :  The Sun: By NASA/STEREO/SDO/GSFC, https://skfb.ly/IRWo PBHs-formation: By European Space Agency, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PBHs-formation.png Animation is created by Bright Side.  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Music from TheSoul Sound: https://thesoul-sound.com/   Check our Bright Side podcast on Spotify and leave a positive review! https://open.spotify.com/show/0hUkPxD34jRLrMrJux4VxV   Subscribe to Bright Side: https://goo.gl/rQTJZz ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Our Social Media: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brightside Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brightside.official TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@brightside.official?lang=en Telegram: https://t.me/bright_side_official   Stock materials (photos, footages and other): https://www.depositphotos.com https://www.shutterstock.com https://www.eastnews.ru ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  For more videos and articles visit: http://www.brightside.me  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This video is made for entertainment purposes. We do not make any warranties about the completeness, safety and reliability. Any action you take upon the information in this video is strictly at your own risk, and we will not be liable for any damages or losses. It is the viewer's responsibility to use judgement, care and precaution if you plan to replicate.

Transcript

00:00Tiny, tiny black holes capable of hollowing out entire planets might be tunneling through

00:06objects on Earth right at this moment.

00:09Could those earthly objects include your own body?

00:13Very likely.

00:14The trick is, in theory, black holes can have an enormous range of size, from those billions

00:19of times heavier to the Sun to minuscule far lighter than a paper clip.

00:24And those tiny black holes, aka primordial black holes, might be the ones zipping through

00:30your arm or leg right at this moment.

00:32Now, unfortunately, primordial black holes are so small that we have found no direct

00:38evidence of them.

00:39But a group of physicists have proposed a creative new approach, looking for their traces

00:44in everyday objects.

00:47Because although the primordial black holes are incredibly small, they are still large

00:52enough to see under a microscope.

00:55The chances of finding their traces are still exceedingly small, but, on the other hand,

01:00it wouldn't take many resources to search for them.

01:04What makes primordial black holes so special?

01:07They could have formed shortly after the Big Bang, in the extreme heat and density of the

01:11early Universe.

01:14Even cooler, they could be a key part of dark matter, the mysterious substance making up

01:1985% of all the matter in the Universe.

01:22Unlike black holes that form from collapsing stars or gas clouds, primordial black holes

01:28are likely to have originated from extremely dense pockets of subatomic particles, extremely

01:34small pieces of matter smaller than atoms, like protons, neutrons, or electrons, in the

01:39Universe's first moments.

01:41These tiny black holes could be as heavy as mountains, but no larger than a hydrogen atom.

01:47This combination of high mass and small size makes them incredibly hard to detect.

01:53Luckily, to help narrow the search, the researchers made some calculations to predict what signs

01:59primordial black holes might leave behind.

02:02And one intriguing possibility is that planets or asteroids might capture these black holes,

02:08which could then hollow out the insides of these objects.

02:12And then, if a planet or asteroid has a liquid core, a captured black hole might absorb the

02:17core material, which is denser than the outer layers.

02:21After consuming the core, the black hole might escape after a collision or impact shakes

02:26it loose.

02:27The result could be a hollowed-out planetary shell.

02:31If the object is small, about one-tenth the size of Earth, it might remain intact long

02:37enough for astronomers to spot it.

02:39But larger hollowed-out planets would collapse under their own weight.

02:43This offers another way to search for primordial black holes.

02:47If a small planet or moon has a much lower density than expected, it could be a sign

02:52that it's hollow and carved out by a black hole.

02:56Now we might not have to search space for clues.

03:00Researchers have also figured out what would happen if a primordial black hole were to

03:04pass through an object here on Earth.

03:06For example, a black hole, weighing about a ton, could carve a tunnel through an object,

03:11leaving an opening about 700 times thinner than a human hair.

03:16The coolest thing, though?

03:18If something moves faster than the speed of sound through a material, the material's

03:22molecules don't have time to react, and the material doesn't rip.

03:26It's like the difference between throwing a rock at a window, which shatters it, and

03:30shooting a bullet through it, which just leaves a clean hole.

03:34Researchers could examine billion-year-old rocks and even structures a few hundred years

03:38old for signs of these microscopic pathways.

03:42Of course, there's a catch.

03:44The odds of finding such a tunnel are very low.

03:47According to the researchers' calculations, there's only a 1 ten-thousandth of a chance

03:52that a primordial black hole would pass through any specific billion-year-old rock.

03:57Even so, the simplicity of the test makes it worth trying.

04:01Now let's talk about the risk to you, or your dog, if you're ever hit by a primordial

04:06black hole.

04:07First, let's be clear.

04:08The chances of this happening during your lifetime, or your dog's, are astronomically

04:13small.

04:14But if it did happen, there's no need to panic.

04:18Unlike planets or ancient rocks, your body, and your dog's body, have only a small amount

04:23of tension.

04:24It seems hard to believe that a primordial black hole could pass through you without

04:28you noticing.

04:30But here's a comparison.

04:32While you're watching this video, hundreds of trillions of neutrinos have passed through

04:36your body at the speed of light, and you didn't feel a thing now, did you?

04:40These particles also have another name – ghost particles.

04:44And that's for a reason.

04:45Maybe someday, we'll call primordial black holes ghost black holes.

04:51Even though now all of this might sound like pure speculation, studies like these are important.

04:57Many ideas that once seemed far-fetched are now accepted parts of science.

05:02Creative thinking is necessary to solve some of the biggest mysteries in physics.

05:07Like the true nature of dark matter, for example.

05:10The smartest people in the world have been trying to solve such problems for 80 years

05:14without success.

05:16So we don't just need minor changes to existing ideas.

05:20We need a completely new way of thinking.

05:24Back on the topic of black holes.

05:26Astronomers have found a lightweight black hole that's puzzling scientists.

05:30The thing is, there's a noticeable lack of black holes between about 2 and 5 times

05:35the Sun's mass.

05:37Scientists don't know if these smaller black holes are just difficult to detect, or if

05:41they're genuinely rare.

05:43Well, the new discovery might help solve the mystery.

05:47This black hole sits right in the middle of that size gap, with a mass of about 3.5 times

05:52that of the Sun.

05:54Researchers spotted it thanks to its companion, a large red giant star about 5,800 light-years

06:00away from Earth.

06:01The star, while only 2.5 times as heavy as the Sun, is about 13 times larger and shines

06:08100 times brighter.

06:11Astronauts made the discovery using data from the European Space Agency's Gaia spacecraft,

06:16which maps the movements of over a billion stars in the galaxy.

06:21Gaia is really good at tracking stars' 2D motion, which is side-to-side and up-and-down.

06:27But scientists needed ground-based telescopes to measure how the red giant was moving toward

06:32or away from Earth.

06:34And their observations revealed something surprising.

06:37Two objects were moving in a wide, nearly circular orbit around each other.

06:42And that orbit raised questions.

06:45The black hole must've formed because of a supernova, an insanely bright explosion

06:49of a star.

06:51The star would've lost a lot of its mass very quickly.

06:54Such a dramatic weight loss should've disrupted the orbit.

06:57It's a basic rule in orbital mechanics.

07:00If a binary system loses half its mass, the two objects should fly apart.

07:05And even if the mass loss wasn't quite that extreme in this case, it should've resulted

07:10in a stretched-out oval-shaped orbit, not the almost circular one we can observe.

07:16Another challenge to the theory is how supernova explosions behave.

07:20They aren't always perfectly even.

07:22If the explosion was lopsided, the leftover black hole could've been thrown off-course,

07:27which would've separated it from its companion star.

07:31This might explain why we spot so many small black holes.

07:35Most could be wandering the galaxy alone, invisible and unnoticed.

07:39That's why the discovery of this binary system is so intriguing.

07:44There's also another possible explanation.

07:47The black hole and the red giant might've originally been a triple-star system, with

07:52two massive stars at its center and the red giant orbiting further out.

07:57And the black hole we see now might've formed when the two central stars merged.

08:02It's also possible that the unseen object in the system contains two smaller compact

08:08objects instead of one.

08:10That's it for today, so hey, if you pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like

08:16and share it with your friends.

08:17Or if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the Bright Side!

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