Nasa’s Roman Mission Will Hunt for Primordial Black Holes
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Re: Nasa’s Roman Mission Will Hunt for Primordial Black Holes
#2Primordial black holes are a fascinating topic. One of my favorite hypotheses is that "planet nine," a large possibly 1-5 Earth mass planet suggested by some orbital models to exist beyond Neptune and Pluto in the far outer solar system, may be a primordial black hole.
If such a thing existed it'd be a black hole about the size of a billiard ball and would be extremely hard to detect. It would not emit Hawking radiation (Hawking temperature still below the CMB), so the only thing it would emit would be when it encountered something and tore it apart. In that case you'd see X-rays, gamma rays, etc., but maybe only briefly. Only way to find it might be to model orbits accurately enough to predict its position and then look for gravitational lensing.
If this companion object did exist it'd be a gigantic discovery of huge importance. It'd be within reach of probes, making it possible to study and even do experiments on to investigate things like quantum gravity. It could also be used in tight gravity assist flybys to accelerate probes to incredible velocities, maybe making interstellar probes a lot more practical. It'd be our very own way to yeet stuff to the stars, assuming these things could withstand insane g-forces (so probably not humans unfortunately).
Re: Nasa’s Roman Mission Will Hunt for Primordial Black Holes
#3I really want primordial black holes to turn out to be the missing antimatter from the Big Bang, but I don’t think that could ever be tested. And of course a mechanism for this would probably need new physics since antimatter interacts the same as normal matter wrt gravity.
Re: Nasa’s Roman Mission Will Hunt for Primordial Black Holes
#4Primordial black holes are a fascinating topic. One of my favorite hypotheses is that "planet nine," a large possibly 1-5 Earth mass planet suggested by some orbital models to exist beyond Neptune and Pluto in the far outer solar system, may be a primordial black hole. If such a thing existed it'd be a black hole about the size of a billiard ball and would be extremely hard to detect. It would not emit Hawking radiat…
> It could also be used in tight gravity assist flybys to accelerate probes to incredible velocities, maybe making interstellar probes a lot more practical.
Would 1-5 earth masses really provide enough of a yeet to appreciably affect the speed of a probe? Jupiter is about 300+ earth masses and we're not flinging probes out to stars using him.
Re: Nasa’s Roman Mission Will Hunt for Primordial Black Holes
#5Primordial black holes are a fascinating topic. One of my favorite hypotheses is that "planet nine," a large possibly 1-5 Earth mass planet suggested by some orbital models to exist beyond Neptune and Pluto in the far outer solar system, may be a primordial black hole. If such a thing existed it'd be a black hole about the size of a billiard ball and would be extremely hard to detect. It would not emit Hawking radiat…
> It could also be used in tight gravity assist flybys to accelerate probes to incredible velocities, maybe making interstellar probes a lot more practical. Would 1-5 earth masses really provide enough of a yeet to appreciably affect the speed of a probe? Jupiter is about 300+ earth masses and we're not flinging probes out to stars using him.
We did, Voyager 1 and 2 used Jupiter to get out of the solar system
Re: Nasa’s Roman Mission Will Hunt for Primordial Black Holes
#6Primordial black holes are a fascinating topic. One of my favorite hypotheses is that "planet nine," a large possibly 1-5 Earth mass planet suggested by some orbital models to exist beyond Neptune and Pluto in the far outer solar system, may be a primordial black hole. If such a thing existed it'd be a black hole about the size of a billiard ball and would be extremely hard to detect. It would not emit Hawking radiat…
> It could also be used in tight gravity assist flybys to accelerate probes to incredible velocities, maybe making interstellar probes a lot more practical. Would 1-5 earth masses really provide enough of a yeet to appreciably affect the speed of a probe? Jupiter is about 300+ earth masses and we're not flinging probes out to stars using him.
You can get a lot closer to the center of mass of the black hole, which should drastically increase acceleration since it falls off with distance squared.
Re: Nasa’s Roman Mission Will Hunt for Primordial Black Holes
#7I really want primordial black holes to turn out to be the missing antimatter from the Big Bang, but I don’t think that could ever be tested. And of course a mechanism for this would probably need new physics since antimatter interacts the same as normal matter wrt gravity.
it sounds a lot like it now that i read this, large dispersed amounts of antimatter that apparently doesn't give off light yet has massive gravitational pull
Re: Nasa’s Roman Mission Will Hunt for Primordial Black Holes
#8Primordial black holes are a fascinating topic. One of my favorite hypotheses is that "planet nine," a large possibly 1-5 Earth mass planet suggested by some orbital models to exist beyond Neptune and Pluto in the far outer solar system, may be a primordial black hole. If such a thing existed it'd be a black hole about the size of a billiard ball and would be extremely hard to detect. It would not emit Hawking radiat…
Assuming you don't go so close that tidal effects tear the probe apart, the g-forces should only be those imposed by the probe's thrusters firing during the assist. When the thrusters aren't firing it's just in free-fall.
Re: Nasa’s Roman Mission Will Hunt for Primordial Black Holes
#9I really want primordial black holes to turn out to be the missing antimatter from the Big Bang, but I don’t think that could ever be tested. And of course a mechanism for this would probably need new physics since antimatter interacts the same as normal matter wrt gravity.
it sounds a lot like it now that i read this, large dispersed amounts of antimatter that apparently doesn't give off light yet has massive gravitational pull
https://youtu.be/qy8MdewY_TY?si=NVZzWJSFXl4EATRK
Good video on topic
Re: Nasa’s Roman Mission Will Hunt for Primordial Black Holes
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
> It could also be used in tight gravity assist flybys to accelerate probes to incredible velocities, maybe making interstellar probes a lot more practical. Would 1-5 earth masses really provide enough of a yeet to appreciably affect the speed of a probe? Jupiter is about 300+ earth masses and we're not flinging probes out to stars using him.
We did, Voyager 1 and 2 used Jupiter to get out of the solar system
And the Pioneers and New Horizons too.