Researchers Link 2019 Microlens to 3-Moon Black Hole Candidate, Boosting Dark Matter Odds 100,000-Fold
Updated
Updated · en.clickpetroleoegas.com.br · May 31
Researchers Link 2019 Microlens to 3-Moon Black Hole Candidate, Boosting Dark Matter Odds 100,000-Fold
3 articles · Updated · en.clickpetroleoegas.com.br · May 31
A 60-minute brightening of a star toward the Large Magellanic Cloud in December 2019 is now being treated as a possible sign of “Phoebe,” an unseen compact object with a mass of about 0.032 Earths—roughly three moons.
Dark Energy Camera data showed the symmetric light curve expected from gravitational microlensing, where an invisible object briefly magnifies a background star instead of emitting light itself.
That low mass is far below typical stellar black holes, pushing researchers toward a primordial-black-hole interpretation formed in the early universe rather than from a collapsed star.
The study says a dark-matter-halo origin is about 100,000 times more likely than modeled stellar-population scenarios in the Milky Way or Large Magellanic Cloud, but it stops short of confirming Phoebe as a black hole.
New fast-cadence detections in star-rich fields will be needed to rule out alternatives such as rogue planets and test whether Phoebe is part of a wider dark-matter population.
Is the mysterious object 'Phoebe' the first proof of primordial dark matter, or just a lonely planet wandering the galactic halo?
If black holes the mass of our Moon truly exist, what can they tell us about the universe's first moments?