Planet Nine may be a primordial black hole

A twist in the Planet Nine hypothesis.

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There is a theory that suggests unseen ninth planet lurking beyond Neptune may have kicked up the orbits of detached objects. A new study now suggests that the gravitational pull could come from a primordial black hole- a small black hole that scientists have theorized formed during the Big Bang.

A paper published this week suggests that Planet Nine could be one of these ancient black holes, roughly ten times Earth’s mass and the size of a bowling ball.

James Unwin, a theoretical physicist, and co-author of the paper, said, “Once you start thinking about more exotic objects, like primordial black holes, you think in different ways. We advocate that rather than just looking for it in visible light, maybe looking for [Planet Nine] in gamma rays. Or cosmic rays.”

“Capture of a free-floating planet is a leading explanation for the origin of Planet Nine, and we show that the probability of capturing a primordial black hole instead is comparable.”

However, the study is quite controversial, but it could one day be testable.

For the study, scientists observed data on the six Kuiper Belt objects’ bizarre orbits and also incorporated recent observations about how light traveling through the solar system appears to be bending due to objects that scientists haven’t accounted for.

Scientists think that the phenomena caused by a primordial black hole, the size of a bowling ball with the mass of 10 Earths.

According to scientists, direct observations could help determine whether it’s a planet or black hole.

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