Scientists and astrophysicists have for a while been on the lookout for an as yet unseen "planet", deemed to be the last discovered planet in our solar system. However, new research has emerged that suggests that Planet Nine or Planet X (as the object is called) may not actually be a planet at all but a primordial black hole.
Scientists theorize that a number of “primordial black holes” formed during The Big Bang along with supermassive blackholes as well as the ones created by collapsing stars, and were much smaller and hence harder to find.
Titled “What if Planet 9 is a Primordial Black Hole?”, a paper recently published on arXiv suggests that the "ninth planet" is, in fact, one of these ancient Primordial black holes. “We take these objects to be primordial black holes (PBHs) and point out the orbits of TNOs would be altered if one of these PBHs was captured by the Solar System, in line with the Planet 9 hypothesis,” states the paper, quoted by Mashable.
The study also talks about new ways to hunt down these ancient black holes that have 10 times the mass of Earth.
As a part of the study, researchers analysed the data on six Kuiper Belt objects' bizarre orbits. They also included recent observations about how the light that enters through the solar system appears to be bending because of certain objects that haven’t been considered yet by the scientists.
Scientists suggest that these phenomena probably occur due to interference of unknown objects consisting of similar mass for which, again, primordial black holes are to be blamed.
They further added that a dense group of free-floating planets outside the solar system explains the light bending more properly. Moreover, direct observations of this mysterious object will further help make it clear whether the unknown object is a planet or a black hole.
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