The Sun plays an essential role throughout the Solar System, especially on Earth. After all, without solar lighting and radiation, there would be no life on our planet. In addition to saving a huge amount of energy in the form of light and heat, The sun is important for many terrestrial processes, from photosynthesis to climate regulation.
Currently, scientists say the Sun should function normally for another five billion years. Naturally, nothing will happen, and the universe will continue in its natural state. But have you ever stopped to think about what would happen if a supermassive black hole appeared near the Sun?
Unfortunately, the massive object will “swallow” our star entirely, and thus, life on Earth will be wiped out within just 8 minutes after destroying the Sun. But what if it was the opposite?
“Stars with a black hole at their center can live a surprisingly long time. Our sun may contain a huge black hole like the planet Mercury at its center, without us realizing it.said postdoctoral fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics (MPA) and assistant professor at Yale University, Earl Patrick Bellinger, who published a study examining the topic.
Have you ever stopped to imagine what it would be like if there was a black hole inside the sun? Scientists now!source: Getty Images
After wondering what would happen if the Sun was swallowed by a small black hole, some researchers published articles on this topic. After all, what would happen if there was a primordial black hole inside the sun?
To try to explain more about this extreme case, TecMundo collected information from experts, astronomers and other scientists in the field. paying off!
Black hole inside the sun
A team of astronomers doubted the possibility of the Sun being “swallowed” by a small primordial black hole, that is, a cosmic body that appeared in the first moments of the universe after the Big Bang.
Scientists explain that this type of structure should have a mass approximately equal to the mass of the asteroid, being even smaller than a baseball. The study was published in the scientific journal The Astrophysical Journal. The existence of a primordial black hole in a star is not unusual for science; In fact, this is a phenomenon known as a Hawking star.
Astronomers believe that primordial black holes could be used to explain more about the mysteries of the universe, such as what dark matter is. Some theoretical models even predict that such objects are common in the universe, so it would not be unusual if a star was found engulfing such a structure.
In a thought experiment, the researchers pointed this out If countless primordial black holes were created after the beginning of the universe, some of them could be “absorbed” by star formation.
In this case, it would be captured by the newly formed star, and the primordial body would occupy the center of the star. However, the black hole will grow slowly due to the high luminosity flow. After analyzing thought experiments, astronomers discovered that such a star would be much more difficult to detect than they had imagined, as it would be almost indistinguishable from an ordinary star.
“Even if the Sun were used as an exercise, there is good reason to believe that Hawking stars would be common in globular clusters and ultra-faint dwarf galaxies. This means that Hawking stars could be “A tool to test the existence of primordial black holes and their possible role as dark matter.”
The illustration above shows the layers of the Sun; If possible, a primordial black hole could exist at the heart of the star.source: Wikimedia Commons
The main difference between a normal star, such as the Sun, and a star that absorbs an object of this type will occur in its core, which will be convective. However, The properties of the star will remain almost the same, which is why it will be very difficult to detect a phenomenon of this magnitude.
In other words, if primordial black holes do exist, one way to find them would be to search for Hawking stars through astroseismology, where researchers use acoustic oscillations to understand the star's core.
In any case, It is important to note that scientists currently do not know whether primordial black holes actually exist in the universe, as they have not been discovered yet. However, astronomers can still conduct thought experiments to try to understand what would happen if they existed and whether a star could capture one during its formation, as in the aforementioned example.
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