NASA Telescope to Hunt Big Bang-Era Black Holes in 2026

May 11, 2024

Black Hole Week (May 6 to 10) has made people pay more attention to NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, which will be launched in 2026. Most astronomers are looking forward to this project, which is meant to look for primordial black holes, which are leftovers from when the universe was first formed about 13.8 billion years ago.

What is Primordial Black Holes?

Theoretically, primordial black holes formed soon after the Big Bang. They could have been caused by changes in density in the very early universe. Unlike black holes that form when stars die, these could be very different sizes possibly as small as an atom but still have a lot of mass. Primordial black holes may have something to do with dark matter, and finding them could help us learn a lot about physics, gravitational effects, and how the universe started.

Research Developments

A major study group at the University of California, Santa Cruz, led by postdoctoral researcher William DeRocco, just put out results in the journal Physical Review D that describe the methods Roman will use to find these ancient cosmic entities. If their existence is proven, it could change a lot about how we think about the early universe and put current theories, even those put forward by Stephen Hawking, to the test. Stephen Hawking’s contributions to the study of black holes, especially his theory of Hawking radiation, suggest that black holes give off radiation over time and then disappear. Hawking’s theory would be challenged if primordial black holes exist and have been around for billions of years. This shows that there are still a lot of questions to be solved about black holes’ properties and how long they last.

Significance and Implications

Finding primordial black holes would not only change current astronomical theories, but it would also help us learn more about the events that formed the universe. This mission is a big step forward in both astronomy and particle physics. It could change the way we think about theories and give us more information about how the world works.

About Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope

The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, formerly known as WFIRST (Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope), is a NASA telescope slated for launch in the mid-2020s.
It boasts a 2.4-meter screen and cutting-edge instruments designed for studying dark energy, exoplanets, and infrared astrophysics.
Named after Nancy Grace Roman, NASA’s inaugural Chief of Astronomy, the telescope will conduct an infrared wide-field survey of the universe.

This survey aims to pinpoint the locations of galaxies and unravel the mysteries surrounding the expansion of the universe across time.

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