AstroUnit

Astronomers J. Scholtz and J. Unwin in a new study investigated the anomalous orbits of trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) and excess in microlensing events using the 5-year Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment (OGLE) and came to the conclusion that these gravitational anomalies can be explained if a tiny primordial black hole with a mass few times that of the Earth were to be lurking in the outskirts of the Solar System. According to the leading Planet 9 hypothesis, it is believed that a super Earth-sized rogue planet must be present to shepherd the orbits of the TNOs. However, the new study suggested that the probability of the Sun capturing a primordial black hole is comparable to the capturing of a rogue planet and suggested ways by which the scenario could be verified or falsified.    An Artist's illustration of the Solar system. Credit:  pixel4k Until now, two distinct but seemingly interconnected gravitational anomalies have been detected with no consensus reg...

  A team of cosmologists compared the theoretical predictions of the maximal abundance of massive galaxies predicted in different dynamical dark energy (DDE) models at high redshifts z ≈ 4 − 7 with the observed abundance and derived constraints for the evolution of the dark energy equation of state parameter which is complementary to the existing probes. The study employed three different, independent probes, namely the luminous end of the stellar mass function at z ≥ 6, the spatial density of luminous galaxies detected in the submillimeter range at z = 4 − 5, and the rareness of the extreme hyperluminous infrared galaxy SPT031158 at z ≈ 7. The analysis excluded a significant fraction of parameter spaces for the DDE models but interestingly does not completely exclude the possibility that dark energy may be dynamical (i.e, changing with time). Deepest visible-light image of the Universe containing nearly 10000 galaxies. Source:  Hubble According to our current understanding of...