Could Tiny Black Holes Be Passing Through Your Home Without You Knowing?

Mysterious primordial black holes may be closer than we think—perhaps even in your walls!

Davy

• Published in Technology
• March 13, 2025

What if some of the greatest cosmic mysteries weren’t lurking in distant galaxies, but right here on Earth? It may sound like a plot from a science-fiction movie, but some scientists believe that tiny black holes—known as Primordial Black Holes (PBHs)—could be passing through our world unnoticed.

Unlike the massive black holes formed from collapsing stars, these miniature entities are nearly impossible to detect. Yet, they could hold the key to understanding dark matter, a mysterious substance that makes up most of the universe’s mass.

Recent research suggests these tiny black holes may leave behind microscopic traces as they move through solid materials. Some scientists even theorize that PBHs could be tunneling through objects, including your home, leaving behind nearly invisible pathways.

If these black holes do exist, they could help answer fundamental questions about the universe, dark matter, and even gravity itself. But how can we detect them? And what does their presence mean for the fabric of reality?

Scientists are now exploring groundbreaking ways to track down these elusive cosmic ghosts—and their discoveries could change everything we know about space and time.

What Exactly Are Primordial Black Holes?

Primordial Black Holes (PBHs) are a hypothetical type of black hole believed to have formed shortly after the Big Bang.

Unlike black holes created from dying stars, PBHs may have originated from small pockets of high-density matter that collapsed under their own gravity.

These early universe conditions could have produced black holes of varying sizes—some as tiny as a grain of sand, others as massive as thousands of suns.

PBHs have fascinated scientists for decades, mainly because they could help explain dark matter. This invisible material makes up around 85% of the universe’s total mass, yet its exact nature remains unknown.

Unlike regular matter, PBHs don’t emit light, making them difficult to detect. However, if they do exist in significant numbers, they could be an answer to one of astrophysics’ greatest puzzles.

Since PBHs formed in the infancy of the universe, studying them could also provide insights into the extreme conditions of that era.

Despite these intriguing possibilities, scientists have yet to find direct proof of their existence. Many small PBHs may have evaporated over time due to Hawking radiation, a process in which black holes slowly lose energy.

However, larger ones may still exist today, drifting through the universe—or even passing through solid objects right under our noses.

Could PBHs Be Moving Through Our World Unnoticed?

Even though they are minuscule, PBHs still possess intense gravitational pull, allowing them to interact with their surroundings in unexpected ways.

One of the most fascinating theories suggests that PBHs could pass through solid objects, leaving behind microscopic tunnels.

A PBH weighing around 10²² grams would create a tunnel only 0.1 microns wide—too small for the human eye to see, but potentially detectable with specialized microscopes.

Physicist Dejan Stojkovic explains:

"A fast-moving primordial black hole passing through solid matter would leave behind a remarkably straight, extremely narrow tunnel."

If this theory is correct, ancient geological formations or even human-made structures could bear hidden scars of a PBH’s passage.

On a larger scale, PBHs could interact with planets and moons in more dramatic ways. If one were to pass through a celestial body with a liquid core, its gravitational force might allow it to get temporarily trapped.

Over time, the PBH could slowly consume the planet’s core, leaving behind a hollowed-out shell. Stojkovic adds:

"If the object has a liquid central core, then a captured PBH can absorb the liquid core, whose density is higher than the outer solid layer."

Davy