MIT physicists have proposed a novel method to detect primordial black holes (PBHs) as dark matter candidates. According to their study, if a PBH were to pass within a few hundred million miles of Mars, it would cause a slight deviation in the planet’s orbit, known as a “wobble.” This wobble could be detected by high-precision instruments monitoring Mars today.
The researchers used simulations to estimate the rate at which PBHs should pass through the solar system and found that they should encounter one every 10 years or so. They then simulated various asteroid-mass black holes flying through the solar system, from different angles and speeds, and identified those flybys that caused some effect on surrounding objects.
While the wobble would be incredibly small – about a meter within a few years of the encounter – it could be detected by current instruments. However, there is still much work needed to confirm that the push came from a passing black hole rather than a run-of-the-mill asteroid.
The researchers acknowledge that there is some luck involved in detecting this signal, as the exact path a wandering black hole takes through the solar system affects whether or not it produces a clear signal. Nevertheless, they believe their proposed test could be a valuable tool for determining if PBHs are indeed responsible for some of the missing dark matter.
As Matt Caplan, an associate professor of physics at Illinois State University, notes: “It’s a very neat test they’ve proposed, and it could tell us if the closest black hole is closer than we realize.”
Source: https://phys.org/news/2024-09-mars-dark.html