What If (Tiny) Black Holes Are Everywhere?

Sign Up on Patreon to get access to the Space Time Discord!

It’s fair to say that black holes may be the scariest objects in the universe. Happily for us, the nearest is probably many light-years away. Unless of course, Planck relics are a thing - in which case they might be literally everywhere.

Check out the Space Time Merch Store

Sign up for the mailing list to get episode notifications and hear special announcements!

Hosted by Matt O'Dowd
Written by Matt O'Dowd
Graphics by Leonardo Scholzer, Yago Ballarini, Pedro Osinski, Adriano Leal & Stephanie Faria
GFX Visualizations: Katherine Kornei
Directed by Andrew Kornhaber
Assistant Producer: Setare Gholipour
Executive Producers: Eric Brown & Andrew Kornhaber

Special Thanks to Our Patreon Supporters

Big Bang Supporters
Charlie
Mrs. Tiffany Poindexter
Leo Koguan
Sandy Wu
Matthew Miller
Scott Gray
Ahmad Jodeh
Radu Negulescu
Alexander Tamas
Morgan Hough
Juan Benet
Vinnie Falco
Fabrice Eap
Mark Rosenthal
David Nicklas

Quasar Supporters
Stephen Wilcox
Christina Oegren
Mark Heising
Hank S

Hypernova Supporters
william bryan
Marc Armstrong
Scott Gorlick
Nick Berard
Paul Stehr-Green
MuOn Marketing
Russell Pope
Ben Delo
L. Wayne Ausbrooks
Nicholas Newlin
Adrian Posor
Антон Кочков
John R. Slavik
Mathew
Danton Spivey
Donal Botkin
John Pollock
Edmund Fokschaner
Joseph Salomone
Matthew O'Connor
chuck zegar
Jordan Young
m0nk
Julien Dubois
John Hofmann
Daniel Muzquiz
Timothy McCulloch

Gamma Ray Burst Supporters
Scott R Calkins
Carl Scaggs
Joshua Helms
G Mack
The Mad Mechanic
Ellis Hall
John H. Austin, Jr.
Diana S
Ben Campbell
Lawrence Tholl, DVM
Faraz Khan
Almog Cohen
Alex Edwards
Nick
Ádám Kettinger
Sylvain Leduc
MD3
Endre Pech
Daniel Jennings
Cameron Sampson
Pratik Mukherjee
Geoffrey Clarion
Nate
Darren Duncan
Russ Creech
Jeremy Reed
Derek Davis
Eric Webster
Steven Sartore
David Johnston
J. King
Michael Barton
Christopher Barron
James Ramsey
Drew Hart
Justin Jermyn
Mr T
Andrew Mann
Jeremiah Johnson
fieldsa eleanory
Peter Mertz
Kevin O'Connell
Isaac Suttell
Devon Rosenthal
Oliver Flanagan
Bleys Goodson
Darryl J Lyle
Robert Walter
Bruce B
Ismael Montecel
Simon Oliphant
Mirik Gogri
Mark Daniel Cohen
Brandon Lattin
Nickolas Andrew Freeman
Shane Calimlim
Tybie Fitzhugh
Robert Ilardi
Astaurus
Eric Kiebler
Craig Stonaha
Martin Skans
Michael Conroy
Graydon Goss
Frederic Simon
Tonyface
John Robinson
A G
Kevin Lee
Adrian Hatch
Yurii Konovaliuk
John Funai
Cass Costello
Tristan Deloche
Bradley Jenkins
Kyle Hofer
Daniel Stříbrný
Luaan
AlecZero
Vlad Shipulin
Cody
Malte Ubl
King Zeckendorff
Nick Virtue
Scott Gossett
Dan Warren
Patrick Sutton
John Griffith
Daniel Lyons
DFaulk
GrowingViolet
Kevin Warne
Andreas Nautsch
Brandon labonte

[pbsspacetime]

Hey Space Timers! Unlike the data compression of black holes, it looks like our Earth-based data compression systems still have a few kinks and cut off part of Matt's opening sentence. We're working on fixing this, but in case you were wondering Matt actually says "It’s fair to say that black holes may be the scariest objects in the universe."

[StoopSports]

Matt: "Feel free to do the math yourself and tell me I'm wrong".

Me: Thanks for the offer but I'll take your word for it.

[tommylakindasorta]

We can easily detect the gravity of these black holes by calculating the rate of disappearance of socks.

[tonypujals]

Loved this episode. The scenario he describes at 10 minutes is one of the most thought proving explanations for the creation of universes I've heard so far.

[Shcroft]

"in regards to Heisenberg, to wit: bending - good, breaking, bad."
You're a literary genius, Matt.

[halneufmille]

Best quote: "Once you eliminate the impossible, you are left with all you didn't think about."

[spacepopeXIV]

"Now, feel free to do the math yourself and tell me I'm wrong."
Yeah, I'll just take your word for it, Matt. The smugness, I love it.

[speedybeattie]

“In terms of the Heisenberg principle: bending good, Breaking Bad.” Classic!

[PeacefulMind]

Guess that's where everything I can't find goes.

[aBigBadWolf]

I'd love a video on non-linear crystals and how they produce entangled photons!!!!

[HarbingersBuddy]

So glad PBS Space Time solved the missing sock paradox. Now I know my city has an infinitely large sock pile contained in a plank length sized TARDIS.

[badlydrawnturtle]

Note for the editor: The first two words are cut off in the intro.

[davidgeissbuhler]

i have phd in theoretical physics (did not continue a career, went to engineering instead, sometimes with regrets) and your channel is one of the best physics/ astronomy ressource around. while accessible to most, a trained physicist like me still learn valuable information at each video!! all that while remaining remarkably unbiased!! congratulations, keep up the good work!!

a possibility interesting topic would be the (very very speculative) cellular automata interpretation of quantum mechanics. t'hooft just released a paper on this topic. this is tough tho, never managed to get through the whole literature 😅

[uncleweirdbeard]

"once you eliminate the impossible, you were left with what you didn't think of" philosophy isn't dead, you just don't get paid for it anymore

[ClayonTutorials]

I love Matt as the host. I hope he really enjoys doing this because I really enjoy listening to him teach me! His vocal inflections are amazing 👏

[paultheaudaciousbradford]

10:07

I love that you suggested that these tiny black holes might actually be a swarm of TARDISes. We’ll be able to unravel the mystery of them as soon as we develop the cosmic screwdriver.

“Care for a jelly baby??”

[cormaniac]

"Happily for us, the nearest black hole is many light years away."
Or are they? *Roll VSauce theme*

[gordy]

Of course Black Holes are everywhere, I have one in my Wallet.

[jameslewis]

For many years now I’ve insisted that the screws I’ve dropped, and subsequently never managed to find again while repairing things, had fallen into tiny, temporary black holes. Consequently, I’m immensely happy to hear this news that implies I may not have just been paranoid this whole time...

[vanyel_etc]

"feel free to do the math yourself" no, no I don't think i will