Cosmic cannibalism: Dark predators can enter planets, turn into black holes and devour them

Scientists have painted a scary scenario according to which black holes can form inside planets and chew through them, ultimately wiping them off the universe, but not fully. According to a study, dark matter, the mysterious substance that fills most of the space in the universe, can create these black holes that will eat them from the inside. What will be left behind is a black hole about the size of the planet it consumed. The "doomsday" finding was published in Physical Review D on August 20. Can something like this happen with Earth? The researchers created a dark matter model which showed dark matter getting concentrated deep inside giant planets, collapsing to form tiny black holes which would then start growing and consume the entire planet. But this is only possible with dark matter particles that are heavy enough and don't annihilate. If scientists can find a planet-mass object, it would prove the existence of such a form of dark matter.

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Dark matter accounts for around 85 per cent of the matter throughout the universe. It has never been seen, yet scientists say it exists, as that is the only way to explain the extremely strong gravity, which cannot be attributed to normal matter. Study authors say that there are several ways in which dark matter might persist. Identifying the behaviour of different candidates will help reveal more secrets about dark matter. One such dark matter would not self-annihilate. Phoroutan-Mehr and his colleague, astrophysicist Tara Fetherolf of UC Riverside, write in the paper that large, gaseous exoplanets can pull this dark matter in, where they sink and concentrate to form black holes. "In gaseous exoplanets of various sizes, temperatures, and densities, black holes could form on observable timescales, potentially even generating multiple black holes in a single exoplanet's lifetime," he explains.

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Dark matter that can turn into black holes should be present at the Milky Way's galactic centre

Phoroutan-Mehr says such exoplanets will be the perfect place to look for superheavy dark matter particles. Cosmic regions that are believed to hold troves of dark matter, like our Milky Way's galactic centre, are where such exoplanets might reside, which might be inadvertently pulling it in, preparing the conditions for their own death. The biggest challenge humans face is that they lack the technology to detect such black holes. Suppose a black hole devours a planet the size of Jupiter from the inside, it would be only about 18.4 feet across. Detecting such a tiny black hole requires extremely sensitive instruments. The answer to the question whether Earth is at risk of attracting dark matter that turns into a black hole is - No. Only an exoplanet that is a gaseous body can do so.