Searching for a Black Hole in the Outer Solar System
Abstract
There are hints of a novel object ("Planet 9") with a mass $5-10$ $M_\oplus$ in the outer Solar System, at a distance of order 500 AU. If it is a relatively conventional planet, it can be found in telescopic searches. Alternatively, it has been suggested that this body might be a primordial black hole (PBH). In that case, conventional searches will fail. A possible alternative is to probe the gravitational field of this object using small, laser-launched spacecraft, like the ones envisioned in the Breakthrough Starshot project. With a velocity of order $.001~c$, such spacecraft can reach Planet 9 roughly a decade after launch and can discover it if they can report timing measurements accurate to $10^{-5}$ seconds back to Earth.
- Publication:
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arXiv e-prints
- Pub Date:
- April 2020
- DOI:
- 10.48550/arXiv.2004.14192
- arXiv:
- arXiv:2004.14192
- Bibcode:
- 2020arXiv200414192W
- Keywords:
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- Astrophysics - Earth and Planetary Astrophysics;
- High Energy Physics - Phenomenology;
- High Energy Physics - Theory
- E-Print:
- 4 pp, additional references