An atom in the sky (IMAGE)
Caption
An atom in the sky. If new ultralight particles exist, black holes would be surrounded by a cloud of such particles that behaves surprisingly similar to the cloud of electrons in an atom. When another heavy object spirals in and eventually merges with the black hole, the gravitational atom gets ionized and emits particles just like electrons are emitted when light is shone onto a metal.
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UvA Institute of Physics
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