News Physics

How to spot tiny black holes that might pass through the solar system 

Primordial black hole flybys might tweak the orbits of planets and GPS satellites

An illustration shows a black hole, indicated by warped light, near a planet in the solar system

A primordial black hole in the solar system (illustrated) could make its presence known by altering the orbits of planets.

Benjamin V. Lehmann, with use of SpaceEngine@Cosmographic Software LLC

By Emily Conover

Black holes about the size of a hydrogen atom could be careening through the solar system unnoticed. But their days of stealth may be numbered.

Two teams of researchers propose methods to search for these tiny, hypothetical objects, which would have the mass of an asteroid.