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Dark Matter Black Holes Could Fly through the Solar System Once a Decade (www.scientificamerican.com)

submitted 4 days ago by onlinepersona@programming.dev to c/astronomy@mander.xyz

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Black holes the size of an atom that contain the mass of an asteroid may fly through the inner solar system about once a decade, scientists say. Theoretically created just after the big bang, these examples of so-called primordial black holes could explain the missing dark matter thought to dominate our universe. And if they sneak by the moon or Mars, scientists should be able to detect them, a new study shows.

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[–] superkret@feddit.org 22 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (2 children)

If dark matter is fully explained by such black holes, their most likely mass, according to some theories, would range from 10^17^ to 10^23^ grams—or about that of a large asteroid.

In case this doesn't tell you a lot, 10^17^ grams is half the weight of Mount Everest, and 10^23^ grams is 4x the weight of the Antarctic ice shield.

[–] remotelove@lemmy.ca 7 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (3 children)

The earth is estimated to "weigh" 13,170,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 pounds. (That is weird when you think about it. The weight of the earth being based on what something weighs on earth, I mean.)

Mt. Everest is only about 357,000,000,000,000 pounds and is just a tiny fraction of the mass of the earth.

So. My point is that we need a better way to portray scale of things in the universe. AUs work to a point but then we have to quickly move to parsecs. Parsecs quickly give way to light years. (Or vice-versa, depending on how you visualize things better.) Light years kinda work, but only for between 14-26 billion years. Even after all of that, I can hardly still fathom the size of Mt. Everest. (This was a rant, but not an angry rant.)

[–] floofloof@lemmy.ca 14 points 4 days ago (2 children)

The earth is estimated to "weigh" 13,170,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 pounds.

Mt. Everest is only 357,000,000,000,000 pounds

My point is that we need a better way to portray scale of things in the universe.

Well, for a start, God uses the metric system.

[–] Mr_Blott@feddit.uk 9 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Fuckin everyone uses the metric system

[–] RandomVideos@programming.dev 5 points 4 days ago

Even aliens building the pyramids used the metric system

[–] butwhyishischinabook@lemmy.world 3 points 3 days ago

God uses base 12, he doesn't arbitrarily settle on base 10 just because he has that many fingers.

[–] chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world 3 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Weight in pounds isn’t the right unit here. Weight varies depending on the strength of the gravitational field you’re in, whereas mass does not. A kilogram here on earth weighs 2.2lbs but on the moon it only weighs 0.36lbs.

[–] Rato@lemmy.world 3 points 3 days ago

In the English Engineering System, the unit of mass is 1 pound mass (lbm), and is equivalent to the amount of matter that weighs 1lb at 1G. I won't argue that EES is a good system, but it does at least have a kludged unit for mass. It has an equally kludged unit for force, too, called pounds force (lbf).

[–] remotelove@lemmy.ca 2 points 3 days ago

I called that out. It was the weight of the earth.... on earth.

[–] barsquid@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago

I cannot fathom the size of anything on an astronomical scale. I have seen the videos that zoom out and show Earth at scale with the Sun and then the Sun at scale with other stars. No matter how many times I view the facts it will be incomprehensibly large.