Could We Find Evidence Of Primordial Black Holes On The Moon?
One of the candidates for dark matter are primordial black holes that should have been created shortly after the Big Bang. Two astrophysicists think they are about the size of an atom and blast through the Universe in flocks.
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Dark matter continues to be mysterious. And as you might assume, the theories and hypotheses trying to explain continue to get wilder and wilder. On the other hand, that makes physics much less boring. Almog Yalinewich from the Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics (CITA) and Matthew Caplan from Illinois State University are part of making physics interesting.
These two scientists propose that perhaps we could use the Moon as a giant natural detector of tiny primordial black holes that they think wander the Universe. Some scientists think that in the quantum whirlwind of the newly birthed Universe primordial black holes could have been born. We don’t exactly know how massive they should be but there are several possibilities. These kinds of ideas are part of a concept according to which dark matter is made from Massive Compact Halo Objects (MACHO). Not some mysterious unknown particles but somewhat massive objects we just simply cannot see.
Yalinewich and Caplan think that swarms of mini-black holes the size of an atom. They are expecting that they also didn’t miss our Solar system. If they are correct and these mini-black holes truly exist they should collide with objects in the Solar system and potentially even leave marks on them. As the Moon doesn’t have practically any atmosphere and there are no intense geological or climatic processes that would destroy such evidence it could be a natural detector for these mini-black holes.
Obviously, the Moon isn’t the only object in the Solar system we could use for this. But it is large and most accessible to humanity. Yalinewich and Caplan even came up with a manual on how to find the evidence. We need to look for dust with specific properties that could not have been created when traditional space rocks hit the Moon’s surface. Even the craters from these impacts should be different from regular craters and should be visible with detailed scans of the Moon’s surface.
So, why search the Moon for primordial black holes? Well, they are one of the candidates for dark matter. Sadly, they aren’t getting much traction lately as we don’t have any true evidence that primordial black holes exist no matter their size. But finding any evidence of their existence would change things. So why not at least try?
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