High School Can Dark Matter Explain Black Holes and the Mysterious Planet-Nine?

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The discussion explores the relationship between dark matter, black holes, and the hypothesized Planet Nine. Participants debate whether the predicted mass of Planet Nine could be a black hole or a cluster of dark matter, with many arguing that a black hole would have observable gravitational effects that would disrupt our solar system's orbits. The concept of dark matter is clarified as not clumping together like regular matter, making it unlikely to form compact objects. The possibility of observing dark matter through non-gravitational means is deemed unlikely, as it primarily interacts via gravity. Overall, the conversation highlights the complexities and uncertainties in understanding these cosmic phenomena.
  • #31
The xray emissions of a 10 Earth mass BH in the solar system would be easily detected by instruments currently in use.
 
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  • #32
Chronos said:
The xray emissions of a 10 Earth mass BH in the solar system would be easily detected by instruments currently in use.
Would it be accurate to say the only way for this 10 Earth mass object to be a BH is if it was a primordial BH without an accretion disk?
 
  • #33
It would almost surely have to be a PBH because no other known astrophysical process could create such a low mass black hole. On the other hand, nothing that massive could reside in the Kuiper belt or Oort cloud very long without developing an impressive accretion disk. While its Hawking temperature and luminosity would be negligibly low, infalling matter would make the thing look like a satellite view of Las Vegas at night to modern instruments. Accretion of a single chelyabinsk mass body [~13 million kg] would create a flash bright enough to be seem by the naked eye in broad daylight.
 
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  • #34
I wonder if science and/or industry will ever be able to create a video camera that would remain intact so we can find out exactly what happens inside, or what causes black holes or spheres.
 
  • #35
Black holes are classical physics objects and the Schwarzschild equation for a non rotating uncharged black hole, Rs=2GM/c^2, is a reformulation of the Newtonian equation for escape velocity, Ve=sqrt(GM/r). There are quantum physics ramifications because the very high pressures produced by the gravitation overcomes the electrical charges in atoms crushing them. Newton predicted black holes, probably without realizing it, and Einstein's general relativity provides the means to integrate the concept into space-time geometry. There is no reason to think they have any relationship to dark matter or dark energy.
 
  • #36
ProfChuck said:
the Schwarzschild equation for a non rotating uncharged black hole, Rs=2GM/c^2, is a reformulation of the Newtonian equation for escape velocity, Ve=sqrt(GM/r)

This is not correct. In fact, the reverse is much closer to the truth: the Newtonian equation for escape velocity can be derived from the Schwarzschild solution in GR, but the Schwarzschild solution, including the value of the horizon radius, cannot be derived from Newtonian mechanics.

ProfChuck said:
There are quantum physics ramifications because the very high pressures produced by the gravitation overcomes the electrical charges in atoms crushing them.

This is not correct either. What has to be overcome by gravity for collapse to a black hole to occur is degeneracy pressure, not electromagnetic repulsion. The simplest way to see this is to observe that neutrons do not electromagnetically repel each other, yet neutron stars exist.

ProfChuck said:
Newton predicted black holes, probably without realizing it

Reference, please?
 
  • #37
PeterDonis said:
This is not correct. In fact, the reverse is much closer to the truth: the Newtonian equation for escape velocity can be derived from the Schwarzschild solution in GR, but the Schwarzschild solution, including the value of the horizon radius, cannot be derived from Newtonian mechanics.
This is not correct either. What has to be overcome by gravity for collapse to a black hole to occur is degeneracy pressure, not electromagnetic repulsion. The simplest way to see this is to observe that neutrons do not electromagnetically repel each other, yet neutron stars exist.
Reference, please?

Item 1: The Newtonian equation for escape velocity is, Ve=sqrt(GM/r). Set Ve to to the speed of light and solve for r.

Item 2: You are of course correct. I should have included that in my response.

Item 3: It is my opinion. In Newtons time the speed of light was not well known so there was no particular reason for him to include the ramifications in his thinking.
 
  • #38
ProfChuck said:
The Newtonian equation for escape velocity is, Ve=sqrt(GM/r). Set Ve to to the speed of light and solve for r.

Yes, but that has nothing to do with the Schwarzschild solution in GR. So it doesn't support what you originally said.

ProfChuck said:
It is my opinion.

Then it's off topic here.
 
  • #39
Sue Rich said:
I wonder if science and/or industry will ever be able to create a video camera that would remain intact so we can find out exactly what happens inside, or what causes black holes or spheres.
I don't know if you are joking or serious but I'll assume you are serious. It is irrelevant whether a camera stay intact inside of the Event Horizon since it is removed from causal connection with the rest of the universe other than the fact that it would add a trivial amount of mass to the BH and thus cause a trivial increase in its gravitational strength. That this is such a basic fact about black holes is why I can't tell if you are joking or serious.
 
  • #40
Sue Rich said:
or what causes black holes or spheres.
We know what causes black holes. They are formed due to a massive star running out of nuclear energy and not being able to support its own mass. It then collapses to a singularity where all mass of the previous star is centralized.
 
  • #41
Comeback City said:
We know what causes black holes. They are formed due to a massive star running out of nuclear energy and not being able to support its own mass. It then collapses to a singularity where all mass of the previous star is centralized.
Not ALL the mass of the star. Some of it is blown off in the explosion.
 
  • #42
phinds said:
Not ALL the mass of the star. Some of it is blown off in the explosion.
That is true. Would most of the mass still remain though?
 
  • #43
Comeback City said:
That is true. Would most of the mass still remain though?
Good question. I've read the answer to that but do not remember. My memory is not what it used to be. Actually, my memory was never what it used to be.
 
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  • #44
Comeback City said:
Would most of the mass still remain though?

Not necessarily. As long as enough mass remains to exceed the maximum mass limit for a white dwarf or neutron star, the object will still collapse to a black hole, even if a large fraction of its original mass is ejected in the explosion.
 
  • #45
PeterDonis said:
Not necessarily. As long as enough mass remains to exceed the maximum mass limit for a white dwarf or neutron star, the object will still collapse to a black hole, even if a large fraction of its original mass is ejected in the explosion.

So would it be more likely that larger collapsed stars will lose a larger percentage of their mass in the explosion than smaller collapsed stars? Or is roughly the same percentage lost regardless of the star's mass?
 
  • #46
Comeback City said:
would it be more likely that larger collapsed stars will lose a larger percentage of their mass in the explosion than smaller collapsed stars?

I think that is generally expected, but I don't know how much actual data we have to back up that expectation.
 
  • #47
Comeback City said:
That is true. Would most of the mass still remain though?
There is the case of failed supernovas, which do not explode but still form a BH; I assume they would retain most, if not all their mass.
 
  • #48
Comeback City said:
If the mass supposedly orbiting our solar system was a black hole, we would begin orbiting it and eventually get "sucked into" it. That itself basically rules out the black hole possibility. I'm not sure how this relates to dark matter and dark energy, though.
If the Bh was far enough away and the gravitational effects weak enough, surely the effects would be negligible. The sun would have a much stronger gravitational effect on the solar system, enough to prevent the outer planets being dragged away.
 
  • #49
BL4CKB0X97 said:
If the Bh was far enough away and the gravitational effects weak enough, surely the effects would be negligible. The sun would have a much stronger gravitational effect on the solar system, enough to prevent the outer planets being dragged away.

If it is small enough, yes. But this planet nine has an estimated radius of about 13,000 + km. If it were a bh, it would have a mass of about 4000+ solar masses. @Drakkith pointed out the effects would be huge.
 
  • #50
BL4CKB0X97 said:
If the Bh was far enough away and the gravitational effects weak enough, surely the effects would be negligible. The sun would have a much stronger gravitational effect on the solar system, enough to prevent the outer planets being dragged away.

Comeback City said:
If it is small enough, yes. But this planet nine has an estimated radius of about 13,000 + km. If it were a bh, it would have a mass of about 4000+ solar masses. @Drakkith pointed out the effects would be huge.

The radius is irrelevant here. It is the mass that's key. The researchers proposing the existence of planet 9 don't put the radius of the planet into their models, they put in the mass. This is because observations constrain the mass to a certain range, about 7-10 Earth masses. Whatever the object may be, if it exists at all, it cannot be far above this range or its gravitational effects would already have been noticed and it wouldn't match the proposed model.
 
  • #51
Drakkith said:
The radius is irrelevant here.
If it was a black hole, the radius would be relevant.
Drakkith said:
This is because observations constrain the mass to a certain range, about 7-10 Earth masses.
If they are estimating the mass in this range, then the answer to the question in the original post is no, it cannot be a black hole.
 
  • #52
Comeback City said:
If it was a black hole, the radius would be relevant.
Why? I don't understand why you think this.
If they are estimating the mass in this range, then the answer to the question in the original post is no, it cannot be a black hole.
Not true. It would be on the low end of BH size, but not impossible
 
  • #53
Comeback City said:
If it was a black hole, the radius would be relevant.

The radius is directly proportional to the mass of the black hole, which is what is actually being measured/modeled. The object, whatever it is, is constrained by how much mass it has, not its radius. So no, the radius is not relevant. The mass is.

Comeback City said:
If they are estimating the mass in this range, then the answer to the question in the original post is no, it cannot be a black hole.

It could if the black hole was within this mass range, but there just isn't any known way for a black hole of this mass to exist. And even if there were a way, the chances of one existing in our solar system would be exceptionally small.
 
  • #54
phinds said:
Why? I don't understand why you think this.
Mass and radius of bh are directly related through
r=2GM/c2
If one is relevant, the other should be also.
If it isn't a black hole, then it would not be relevant.
 
  • #55
phinds said:
Not true. It would be on the low end of BH size, but not impossible
Drakkith said:
It could if the black hole was within this mass range, but there just isn't any known way for a black hole of this mass to exist. And even if there were a way, the chances of one existing in our solar system would be exceptionally small.
 
  • #56
Comeback City said:
Mass and radius of bh are directly related through
r=2GM/c2
If one is relevant, the other should be also.
If it isn't a black hole, then it would not be relevant.

The fact that they are related does not make both relevant. The radius does not appear in the model under discussion here.
 
  • #57
Comeback City said:
Mass and radius of bh are directly related through
r=2GM/c2
If one is relevant, the other should be also.
If it isn't a black hole, then it would not be relevant.
I disagree. Only the mass is relevant, in either case. The diameter has no affect on the rest of the universe (unless you are really close to the surface)
 
  • #58
Drakkith said:
The fact that they are related does not make both relevant. The radius does not appear in the model under discussion here.
phinds said:
I disagree. Only the mass is relevant, in either case. The diameter has no affect on the rest of the universe (unless you are really close to the surface)
Ok. I see your point(s). I was trying to show that if the mass of a bh can be derived from its radius, then the radius itself is relevant.
 
  • #59
Comeback City said:
Ok. I see your point(s). I was trying to show that if the mass of a bh can be derived from its radius, then the radius itself is relevant.

It certainly would be if, as phinds said, you were worried about the behavior of things very close to the black hole. But we're talking about the behavior of small objects many millions of kilometers away even at their closest approach to this object. In such a situation the radius doesn't matter since nothing approaches this object close enough to worry about it.
 
  • #60
Comeback City said:
if the mass of a bh can be derived from its radius

The point Drakkith is making is that this is only relevant if the radius is what you are actually measuring, or constraining via other measurements. But in the models under discussion, what is being constrained is the mass of the object, not the radius; so the mass is the observable and the radius is derived. Therefore the radius is not relevant; the mass is.
 
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