Black holes are some of the most powerful
and violent objects in the universe.
They can warp space and time
and rip entire stars to pieces.
So, what if I told you
that astrophysicists
think there's one lurking in
our very own solar system?
Reporter: Then a new discovery
rocked the astronomical
world to its foundation.
Narrator: Now, before you freak out,
you should know that
our planet isn't about
to get sucked up and
reappear in another galaxy.
If there is a black hole,
it's at least 20 times farther from Earth
than the furthest planet, Neptune,
in a distant region of our solar system
called the extended Kuiper Belt.
The belt is home to
billions of icy objects,
like comets and asteroids.
And in 2016, astronomers
Konstantin Batygin
and Mike Brown noticed that some of them
have highly unusual orbits.
While most objects in our solar system
orbit the same plane, and
in the same direction,
the orbit of these
objects looks like this.
Some of them orbit on a slight tilt.
Others orbit backwards.
And still others orbit perpendicular
to the plane of our solar system.
Konstantin Batygin: Imagine
the plane of the solar system
as being your table.
These orbits are stacked like books.
Narrator: They concluded
that this could mean
only one thing.
Batygin: In order to
generate this population
of highly inclined, perpendicular orbits,
you need some distant gravitational pull.
Narrator: By their calculation,
that gravitational pull
is five times greater than Earth's.
So they reasoned that this "something"
was as large as a planet orbiting our sun.
In fact, they even went
so far to give it a name,
Planet 9.
Now, of course, if they were
to confirm this discovery,
it would be groundbreaking.
The first new planet in our solar system
since the discovery of Neptune in 1846.
Reporter: Very little
is known about Neptune,
the last of the giants on this tour.
Narrator: But there was a problem.
No one was able to observe
the planet directly.
Now, that could be because
finding a planet that far away
is like searching for a
needle in a haystack...
with the lights off
and only a vague idea of
where the haystack even is.
Or it could be because, well,
that "something" is not a planet at all.
In a study published in the fall of 2019,
theoretical physicists Jakub
Scholtz and James Unwin
proposed it could
actually be a black hole.
Not just any black hole,
but a primordial black hole.
Jakub Scholtz: Primordial
black hole is a remnant
from the Big Bang that came
from a very dense region
that almost instantly collapsed
into a small black hole
right during the birth of the universe.
Narrator: And they do mean small.
About the size of a tennis ball.
That's right; this black hole
would fit in the palm of your hands.
While the idea might sound far-fetched,
it isn't totally out there.
For over 50 years, astronomers
have proposed the universe
is littered with primordial black holes.
And we've even observed
fluctuations of starlight
in our own galaxy,
which primordial black
holes could explain.
Not only that, but Scholtz
and Unwin also noticed
that if a primordial black
hole orbited the sun,
it would have the same effect
on objects in the Kuiper Belt
as a large planet.
But whether it's a black hole or a planet,
there's another mystery.
Where did it come from?
One idea is that the object was
wandering through the galaxy
and got caught in the sun's gravity,
but for now, this is all just speculation.
James Unwin: If we do do our
searches and it turns out
that there is a planet in
the outer solar system,
this would be an absolutely
incredible discovery.
Such a strange planet
on such an odd orbit.
It would really change our understanding
of the history of the solar system.
Narrator: But if it is proven
that this is a black hole
in our own outer solar system?
Unwin: This is completely mind-blowing.
And the fact that this
not only would change
our understanding of solar system physics,
but it also gives us a new
window into astrophysics,
into early-universe cosmology,
and into, potentially
into, the fundamentals
of particle physics.
Narrator: Whether it's
a planet, a black hole,
or something else entirely,
one thing is for sure:
When we do find the source
of this mysterious gravitational
pull, it will be huge.
