The Silent Devourer: Could Dark Matter Be Creating Black Holes Within Exoplanets?

Imagine a planet, not unlike our own, orbiting a distant star. Now, imagine an invisible, undetectable force slowly gathering within its very core, growing denser and denser until, with a silent, cataclysmic shudder, it collapses into a miniature black hole. This isn't science fiction; it's a chilling, yet fascinating, hypothesis currently being explored by astrophysicists grappling with one of the universe's greatest enigmas: dark matter.

For decades, scientists have known that something unseen—dark matter—constitutes about 27% of the universe's mass.

Its gravitational pull shapes galaxies, yet it doesn't interact with light or other electromagnetic forces, making it notoriously difficult to detect. But what if this elusive substance isn't just a distant gravitational ghost? What if it's intimately, terrifyingly, involved in the fate of planets across the cosmos?

The groundbreaking theory suggests that as exoplanets traverse the universe, they might be unknowingly collecting dark matter particles.

If these particles possess certain properties—specifically, if they can lose energy through interactions (perhaps by annihilating with each other or simply scattering)—they could gradually sink towards the planet's center. Over astronomical timescales, this accumulation could lead to a critical mass.

Once enough dark matter has congregated in the planet's core, its immense self-gravity could overcome all other forces, leading to a phenomenon known as gravitational collapse.

The result? A microscopic black hole, born right at the heart of the exoplanet. This isn't the kind of supermassive black hole found at galactic centers, but a stellar-mass or even smaller version, yet still possessing an insatiable appetite.

What happens next is truly the stuff of cosmic nightmares.

This newly formed internal black hole wouldn't erupt dramatically. Instead, it would begin a slow, insidious process of accretion, gradually consuming the planet from the inside out. The planet would effectively become a cosmic Pac-Man, slowly but surely devoured by an entity born within itself. Depending on the black hole's mass and the planet's size, this process could take millions or even billions of years.

The crucial question then becomes: can these worlds survive? The answer is complex.

A sufficiently massive exoplanet might withstand the initial stages, perhaps even stabilizing the internal black hole's growth, though its long-term fate would remain grim. Smaller planets, however, would likely face a more rapid and complete destruction. This hypothesis introduces a terrifying new mechanism for planetary demise, beyond supernovae, stellar flares, or planetary collisions.

While purely theoretical for now, this dark matter black hole scenario opens up startling new avenues for astrophysical research.

It challenges our understanding of planetary evolution and could have profound implications for the search for habitable exoplanets. If true, the universe might be a far more dangerous place than we ever imagined, with invisible threats lurking in the very fabric of reality, waiting to consume worlds from within.