{"id":93263,"date":"2025-08-24T22:35:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-24T22:35:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/93263\/"},"modified":"2025-08-24T22:35:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-24T22:35:08","slug":"can-dark-matter-turn-giant-planets-into-black-holes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/93263\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Dark Matter Turn Giant Planets Into Black Holes?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\"Dark<\/a>Exoplanets might hold hidden clues about dark matter. New research suggests these distant worlds could even collapse into black holes, challenging existing theories. Credit: SciTechDaily.com<\/p>\n

Scientists\u2019 model indicates that dark matter inside gas giants could collapse into black holes detectable by observation.<\/p>\n

Astronomers have identified more than 5,000 planets orbiting stars outside our solar system. These distant worlds, known as exoplanets, provide scientists with valuable opportunities to study how planets form and evolve, as well as to consider whether life might exist elsewhere in the universe.<\/p>\n

According to a new study from UC Riverside<\/a>, published in Physical Review D, exoplanets may also be useful for probing one of the most mysterious substances in the cosmos: dark matter. The research explores how dark matter, which is believed to make up about 85% of all matter in the universe, could influence massive planets similar in size to Jupiter over billions of years.<\/p>\n

The team\u2019s calculations indicate that dark matter particles may slowly sink into planetary interiors and build up in their cores. While dark matter has never been directly observed in experiments on Earth, scientists remain confident in its existence.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the dark matter particles are heavy enough and don\u2019t annihilate, they may eventually collapse into a tiny black hole,\u201d said paper first author Mehrdad Phoroutan-Mehr, a graduate student in the Department of Physics and Astronomy who works with Hai-Bo Yu, a professor of physics and astronomy. \u201cThis black hole could then grow and consume the entire planet, turning it into a black hole with the same mass as the original planet. This outcome is only possible under the superheavy non-annihilating dark matter model.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Mehrdad<\/a>Mehrdad Phoroutan-Mehr is a graduate student in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at UC Riverside. Credit: Mehrdad Phoroutan-Mehr<\/p>\n

According to the superheavy non-annihilating dark matter model, dark matter particles are extremely massive and do not destroy each other when they interact. The researchers focused on this model to show how superheavy dark matter particles are captured by exoplanets, lose energy, and drift toward their cores. There, they accumulate and collapse into black holes.<\/p>\n

Timescales and Galactic Implications<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 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\u2019s lifetime,\u201d Phoroutan-Mehr said. \u201cThese results show how exoplanet surveys could be used to hunt for superheavy dark matter particles, especially in regions hypothesized to be rich in dark matter like our Milky Way\u2019s galactic center.\u201d<\/p>\n

Phoroutan-Mehr was joined in the study by Tara Fetherolf, a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences.<\/p>\n

Phoroutan-Mehr explained that, so far, astronomers have only detected black holes with masses greater than our sun. He said most existing theories suggest that black holes must be at least that massive.<\/p>\n

\u201cDiscovering a black hole with the mass of a planet would be a major breakthrough,\u201d he added. \u201cIt would support the thesis of our paper and offer an alternative to the commonly accepted theory that planet-sized black holes could only form in the early universe.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Phoroutan-Mehr, exoplanets have not been used much in dark matter research largely because scientists did not have enough data about them.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut in recent years, our knowledge of exoplanets has expanded dramatically, and several upcoming space missions will provide even more detailed observations,\u201d he said. \u201cWith this growing body of data, exoplanets can be used to test and challenge different dark matter models.\u201d<\/p>\n

Exoplanets Enter the Dark Matter Debate<\/p>\n

Phoroutan-Mehr said in the past, scientists investigated dark matter by observing objects like the sun, neutron stars, and white dwarfs, since different models of dark matter can affect these objects in different ways. For example, some models suggest that dark matter can heat up neutron stars.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, if we were to observe an old and cold neutron star, it could rule out certain properties of dark matter, since dark matter is theoretically expected to heat them up,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He added that many exoplanets (and Jupiter in our solar system) not having collapsed into black holes can help scientists rule out or refine dark matter models such as the superheavy non-annihilating dark matter model.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf astronomers were to discover a population of planet-sized black holes, it could offer strong evidence in favor of the superheavy non-annihilating dark matter model,\u201d Phoroutan-Mehr said. \u201cAs we continue to collect more data and examine individual planets in more detail, exoplanets may offer crucial insights into the nature of dark matter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Phoroutan-Mehr noted that another possible effect of dark matter on exoplanets \u2014 and possibly on planets in our solar system \u2014 is that it could heat them or cause them to emit high-energy radiation.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday\u2019s instruments aren\u2019t sensitive enough to detect these signals,\u201d he said. \u201cFuture telescopes and space missions may be able to pick them up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reference: \u201cProbing superheavy dark matter with exoplanets\u201d by Mehrdad Phoroutan-Mehr and Tara Fetherolf, 20 August 2025, Physical Review D.
DOI: 10.1103\/qkwt-kd9q<\/a><\/p>\n

Funding: U.S. Department of Energy, NASA Astrobiology Institute<\/p>\n

Never miss a breakthrough: Join the SciTechDaily newsletter.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Exoplanets might hold hidden clues about dark matter. New research suggests these distant worlds could even collapse into…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":93264,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[305,17708,64,63,20470,11047,128,69100],"class_list":{"0":"post-93263","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-astronomy","9":"tag-astrophysics","10":"tag-au","11":"tag-australia","12":"tag-dark-matter","13":"tag-exoplanet","14":"tag-science","15":"tag-uc-riverside"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93263\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}