This is something I have been meaning to mention for a week or two, and was reminded about by Neil’s Doctor Who episode, in which our heroes travel to a destination outside of our universe. That’s using a time machine to travel outside space-time, which is an interesting idea, but apparently not impossible.
How do I know this? Because of this story that suggests that so-called “primordial” black holes may date from before the Big Bang. The supposition is that instead of the universe collapsing into a singularity (the Big Crunch) and then expanding again (the Big Bang), the actual collapse wasn’t quite as neat, and some small black holes were never fully eaten.
These primordial black holes are apparently very small. So small, in fact, that they may be unable to eat other matter. According to this paper, a black hole with a mass of less than 1012 kg is unable to feed.
And here’s where it gets very interesting. If these things have been around since the Big Bang then they are probably evenly distributed throughout the universe. And if there are enough of them then they could be a very good candidate for an explanation for Dark Matter. Cool.
It wouldn’t be a proper science post, however, without some element of “we’re all going to die!”, so here’s the latest thing to be scared of. The universe, including our little corner of it, is full of mini black holes. Because they can’t feed, these mini black holes pass through our planet without us noticing them. And we know where they came from. So…
The Earth is being bombarded with Black Holes from Beyond the Dawn of Time!
How cool is that?
Ah, I was going to comment about evaporation, but it seems to be the cornerstone question in the paper:”what if they don’t?”.
Sounds like the jumping off point for a raft of interesting SF-stories.
Hmmmm…. what if origins of Chtuhlu were a mini-black hole that went renegade………… wanders off to talk to publisher.
LOL–that last is a great B movie title, Cheryl: “Black Holes from Beyond the Dawn of Time!” indeed.
Interesting stuff. So if they can’t, um, feed (shudder), what do they do? How does one know they’re there? Do they have any effect on what’s around them??? (No, I’m not looking around the room as I type this; why do you ask?)