Scientists may have found signs of dark matter in Mars’s orbit

A wobble in Mars’ orbit could very well be a sign of dark matter, a new study posits. The study builds off the idea that dark matter may actually be made up of thousands of tiny primordial black holes—black holes so tiny they’re basically microscopic. These black holes are believed to have formed in the first moments following the Big Bang.

This theory was first introduced in the 1970s but has recently started gaining more traction. However, unlike the more well-known astrophysical black holes scientists find and study throughout the universe, primordial black holes are formed when dense pockets of gas collapse in the early universe. As such, they would have become scattered all across the universe when it expanded and cooled.

Because they would have collapsed into such tiny forms, the enormous amount of mass within them would make them extremely heavy—as heavy as one of the largest asteroids, while still remaining as small as a single atom. Further, scientists believe these primordial black holes are what we know as dark matter and that signs of this dark matter may come in the form of tiny wobbles in planetary orbits.

These wobbles, a new study published in Physical Review says, could be the outcome of a primordial black hole coming close to a planet, thus pushing its orbit slightly off track due to the heavy mass of the black hole. To check whether this might be possible, the researchers started putting together various simulations of Mars’ orbit and changes to it over the years.

They found that the data seemed to line up with their line of thinking. However, before we can outright and clearly say that these wobbles are signs of dark matter, they’ll need to prove it using real data. Whether or not that is possible remains to be seen. For now, though, it is at least a very interesting theory that scientists are sure to spend quite a bit of time arguing over.