Astronomers Spot 60-Minute Microlensing Event, Pointing to 3-Moon-Mass Dark Matter Object
Updated
Updated · Universe Today · May 27
Astronomers Spot 60-Minute Microlensing Event, Pointing to 3-Moon-Mass Dark Matter Object
4 articles · Updated · Universe Today · May 27
A 1-hour brightening of a Large Magellanic Cloud star in December 2019 has been identified as a genuine microlensing event caused by an object dubbed Phoebe.
Physics of the short event puts Phoebe at about three times the Moon’s mass—too small for a normal stellar-remnant black hole and near the detection limit of current surveys.
Researchers say three explanations remain: a free-floating planet in the Milky Way, an extragalactic rogue planet in the Large Magellanic Cloud, or a primordial black hole formed just after the Big Bang.
Probability modeling strongly favors the dark matter halo over ordinary stellar populations, making Phoebe 100,000 times more likely to be a dark-matter-linked object than normal matter.
If confirmed as a primordial black hole, Phoebe would be an exceptionally ancient object, potentially dating to the infant universe more than 13 billion years ago.
How did scientists spot a moon-sized black hole, a 13-billion-year-old ghost from the universe's dawn?
An ancient black hole just revealed itself. How many more are silently drifting through our galaxy?
Have astronomers finally found the universe's missing dark matter, hiding as relics from the Big Bang?