In a jaw-dropping discovery, physicists have sounded the alarm over a black hole that could detonate within the next 10 years — triggering a cosmic event unlike anything humanity has ever witnessed. The “primordial black hole,” a mysterious relic from the dawn of time, has a 90% chance of exploding by 2035, according to scientists in Massachusetts.
Potentially created mere seconds after the Big Bang, advanced telescopes are already pointed at the cosmic relic, ready to catch the show if the experts are correct. “We’re not claiming that it’s absolutely going to happen this decade,” lead study author Michael Baker, an assistant professor of physics at UMass Amherst, noted. “But there could be a 90% chance that it does.”
Primordial black holes are theoretical black holes, thought to have formed in the immediate aftermath of the Big Bang, rather than from the collapse of dying stars.
Black holes are powerful regions in space where gravity is so strong that nothing, not even light, can escape, consuming surrounding dust and gas, as well as planets and even other black holes.
On Earth, we’ve known that these destructive objects exist in space since the 18th century and have garnered a good understanding of their life cycle in the following decades. In 1971, researchers independently identified Cygnus X-1 as the first widely accepted black hole.
They form when a massive star runs out of fuel and collapses under its own gravity. This implosion triggers a supernova explosion, blowing off the star’s outer layers, leaving behind an incredibly dense core compressed into a tiny space, creating a gravitational field so strong that not even light can escape.
Legendary English physicist Stephen Hawking conducted the first in-depth studies of primordial black holes in the 1970s where he suggested they were created not by the collapse of a star but from the conditions shortly after the Big Bang, roughly 13.8 billion years ago.
These black holes are understood to be smaller and lighter versions of the massive black holes located at the centre of most galaxies, including our very own Milky Way, and we might be able to observe them for the first time.
Professor Hawking contended that black holes slowly release radiative particles through what is now known as ‘Hawking radiation’ if they get hot enough.
While doing so, they become lighter and hotter, leaking more and more radiation until exploding. Usually, the lighter the black hole, the hotter it will be and the more particles emitted.
So, primordial black holes, being smaller and lighter, should give us the opportunity to observe Hawking radiation for the first time. This was thought to occur once every 100,000 years if lucky, but research suggests it can take place every decade or less.
“Since we already have the technology to observe these explosions, we should be ready,” added Professor Baker, noting the event won’t be seen by the naked eye.
Theoretically, the explosion should release every kind of fundamental particle that exists, according to the researchers, including some that are not yet proven to exist, potentially unlocking the keys to the universe’s oldest secrets.
This would “revolutionise physics and rewrite the history of the universe,” the team write in the Physical Review Letters journal.
“Exploding PBHs could provide transformative insights into our universe. They would provide evidence for the existence of PBHs, evidence of Hawking radiation and give definitive information on the fundamental particles present in nature.
“We should ensure that we are well prepared to make the most of a nearby exploding PBH in the near future.”