August M
A new physics paper suggests that tiny “primordial” black holes could theoretically pass through the human body — with larger ones causing serious harm — but scientists stress the chances of such an encounter are virtually zero.
A new scientific paper has stirred public curiosity — and a bit of anxiety — by suggesting that miniature “primordial” black holes might theoretically pass through a human without warning.
While the idea sounds like something from a sci-fi script, physicists stress that the scenario is so improbable it’s not worth losing sleep over.
The discussion centres on exotic objects believed to have formed in the earliest fractions of a second after the Big Bang.
UNILAD reports that these so-called primordial black holes (PBHs) could range dramatically in mass — from those far smaller than a paperclip to others hundreds of thousands of times heavier than the Sun.
Despite their tiny size, some could pack enough density to cause catastrophic damage if one ever crossed a human path.
Oxford Languages defines a black hole as a region of space with gravity so strong that nothing, not even light, can escape. PBHs would follow the same principle, but unlike the supermassive giants at galactic centres, these are purely theoretical and vastly smaller.
Serious injury possible
Physicist Robert Scherrer of Vanderbilt University explores the concept in a paper published in the International Journal of Modern Physics D.
He writes that a PBH roughly the size of an asteroid “would cause serious injury or death if it passed through you,” likening the effect to being struck by a bullet.
Scherrer suggests that if such an object moved through brain tissue, the gravitational forces could “pull apart human brain cells” — a striking illustration of how extreme even a small black hole’s gravity might be.
No reason to panic
But the unsettling imagery comes with an important caveat. PBHs remain hypothetical, and if they do exist, their density in the universe would be so low that an encounter with one is “essentially never going to happen,” Scherrer told UNILAD.
He adds that an extremely small PBH could pass through a person without them noticing at all. To date, there is no evidence that anyone has been killed, harmed, or even brushed by one.
Cosmic mysteries continue
Primordial black holes are thought to have originated during the chaotic first moments after the Big Bang, forming when immense clouds of early matter collapsed. If they exist, scientists believe they may have slowly evaporated over the universe’s 13.8-billion-year history, becoming even harder to detect.
For now, the idea remains an intriguing — but purely theoretical — part of astrophysics. As UNILAD notes, there is no practical risk to humans.
Sources: UNILAD; Oxford Languages; International Journal of Modern Physics D
