In the classical gravitational ballet, a planet and its star twirl in a predictable pas de deux, but the moment a third partner appears — the choreography explodes into chaos. And if that third partner is a primordial black hole, a relic from the first moments after the Big Bang, the system's fate turns into a series of unpredictable somersaults. Back in the 19th century, Henri Poincaré showed that the three-body problem has no analytical solution — the slightest perturbation can trigger an infinite cascade of instabilities. Now astrophysicists have applied this principle to the real system TOI-2796 and its hot Jupiter. They proposed that a hypothetical dark matter particle — a massive black hole — flies through it. According to Stephen Hawking, such objects could have survived to this day, remaining virtually invisible — their presence betrayed only by the gravitational trembling of surrounding stars.

Using direct three-dimensional numerical simulation, scientists calculated hundreds of encounter scenarios. The black hole's gravitational grip leads to three outcomes, like three finales of a cosmic drama. In the first, the planet is hurled away and becomes free-floating — a lonely wanderer in the interstellar darkness. In the second, all three bodies intertwine into a hierarchical triple system: the star, the giant planet, and the black hole begin to circle in a strange but stable rhythm, like a waltz with a ghost. The third, rarest and most dramatic scenario: the black hole steals the planet — like a dancer leading away someone else's partner — and carries it off as a tight pair on a silent journey through eternity. The search for this almost improbable outcome was entrusted to a neural network, which analyzed 475 simulations to spot what escapes the human eye.

These numbers are not just an abstract exercise in celestial mechanics. They open a window into the nature of dark matter itself. If primordial black holes really do roam the Galaxy, their flybys should leave characteristic distortions in exoplanet orbits. And perhaps they create the mysterious free-floating planets that telescopes are increasingly spotting in interstellar space. Vera Rubin, who uncovered the missing mass problem, could hardly have guessed that the key to it lies hidden in the chaos of three bodies. Future missions, like the Rubin Observatory, will be able to detect microlensing — gravitational flashes that betray the presence of invisible massive objects. Thus the chaos written about by Poincaré transforms from a philosophical puzzle into a working tool for a cosmic detective seeking not a criminal, but the hidden mass of the Universe. If such encounters occur at least once every billion years, then right now hundreds of rogue planets may be flying through the Milky Way, their story beginning with a gravitational abduction.