If Planet 9 is a primordial black hole with a mass of 5 Earth, is it possible to detect it in a ground telescope? What should we seek in this case?

Asked Jan 13 '22 at 13:42

Active Jan 13 '22 at 13:42

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If planet 9 is not a planet but a black hole how can we find it? Can we see gravitational lense or infrared/gamma light?

asked Jan 13 '22 at 13:42

Robotex

I'd presume that microlensing events, if you looked in the right place at the right time, would be possible. – WarpPrime Jan 13 '22 at 14:52
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And for a sense of scale, we'd be talking about a BH roughly the size of a softball or large orange. – eps Jan 13 '22 at 15:02
Its impossible to any blackhole if it is "silent". Although its still a tough job to detect supermassive blackholes, In your case difficulty of detecting a black hole of radius just 4.4 cm with an optical ground telescope depends on how far it is away from the sun. Gravitational lensing will help – Kavin Ishwaran Jan 13 '22 at 15:04
Does this answer your question? How would a small nearby black hole be detected and confirmed as such? See also: https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/questions/27983/could-planet-nine-be-a-tiny-black-hole-or-an-exotic-compact-object-such-that-it and https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/a/36882/2531 – ProfRob Jan 13 '22 at 15:25

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