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Study Calculates How Tiny Black Holes Could Injure Humans—and Why Encounters Are Virtually Impossible

The analysis links specific mass thresholds for human injury to tentative limits on primordial black holes as dark matter.

Black Hole in a Globular Cluster. Credit: NASA/ESA and G. Bacon (STScI).
What Would Happen If A Tiny Primordial Black Hole Passed Through Your Body?
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Overview

  • Vanderbilt physicist Robert J. Scherrer modeled a primordial black hole transiting a body, focusing on supersonic shockwaves and tidal forces.
  • He finds about 1.4 × 10^17 grams would deliver bullet-like shock energy comparable to a small rifle round.
  • Tidal forces capable of tearing brain cells apart would require roughly 7×10^18 to 7×10^19 grams.
  • Even if such objects made up dark matter, the expected human injury rate is about 10^−18 per year.
  • The study, published in International Journal of Modern Physics D, suggests the non-observation of such injuries offers a weak additional constraint on primordial black hole abundance.