{"id":233104,"date":"2025-02-06T11:53:04","date_gmt":"2025-02-06T11:53:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/06\/ancient-black-holes-might-solve-the-mystery-of-dark-matter\/"},"modified":"2025-02-06T11:53:04","modified_gmt":"2025-02-06T11:53:04","slug":"ancient-black-holes-might-solve-the-mystery-of-dark-matter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/06\/ancient-black-holes-might-solve-the-mystery-of-dark-matter\/","title":{"rendered":"Ancient black holes might solve the mystery of dark matter"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/www.snexplores.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/primordial-black-hole-still-4k-small-copy.jpg?ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Ancient black holes might solve the mystery of dark matter\" title=\"Ancient black holes might solve the mystery of dark matter\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-component=\"video-embed\">\n<p>A yet-unseen population of ancient <a href=\"https:\/\/www.snexplores.org\/article\/scientists-say-black-hole\">black holes<\/a> may be lurking throughout the universe.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"sn-conversion rich-text alignright\"\/>\n<p>If they exist, these bottomless cosmic pits would have a lot in common with known types of black holes. But unlike known black holes, the mysterious kind would have formed right after the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.snexplores.org\/article\/scientists-say-big-bang\">Big Bang<\/a> \u2014 before stars and galaxies even existed.<\/p>\n<p>Such early-blooming black holes would be <em>primordial<\/em> black holes.<\/p>\n<p>Scientists have wondered for decades if such exotic objects exist. But there\u2019s been a recent surge of interest in finding them \u2014 and there may be a lot of signs to look for. Primordial black holes across the universe could be leaking energy. Their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.snexplores.org\/article\/scientists-say-gravity\">gravity<\/a> could be bending starlight. Some might even be gobbling up stars from the inside out.<\/p>\n<p>Cosmologist Bernard Carr predicts we\u2019ll know if primordial black holes exist within the next decade. \u201cI would bet you, say \u2026 60 or 70 percent that they exist,\u201d says Carr, at Queen Mary University of London in England. \u201cThat\u2019s partly wishful thinking, because I prefer them to exist.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside class=\"wp-block-sciencenews-inline-related-post alignleft\">\n<h4><a href=\"https:\/\/www.snexplores.org\/article\/explainer-what-are-black-holes\">Explainer: What are black holes?<\/a><\/h4>\n<\/aside>\n<p>If primordial black holes are out there, they could help solve several puzzles. One is unexpected patterns seen in the ripples in spacetime, or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.snexplores.org\/article\/explainer-what-are-gravitational-waves\">gravitational waves<\/a>, from black hole mergers. Another is how the supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies got so big so fast in cosmic history. Then there\u2019s one of the biggest mysteries in cosmology: What is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.snexplores.org\/article\/scientists-say-dark-matter\">dark matter<\/a>?<\/p>\n<p>This elusive substance is six times as abundant as all the ordinary stuff we know \u2014 from people to planets to pizza. Dark matter\u2019s gravity is thought to help hold galaxies together. But since it doesn\u2019t seem to absorb, reflect or emit any light, it can\u2019t be seen. And despite decades of research, no one yet knows what it is.<\/p>\n<p>Primordial black holes could account for some or all of the dark matter out there. They too have powerful gravity but cannot be seen. But first, scientists have to find out if such ancient black holes exist.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignwide size-full\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><span class=\"caption wp-caption-3146555\">Exotic conditions in the early universe could have led to the formation of primordial black holes. This artist\u2019s illustration shows such black holes with bright red accretion disks \u2014 though real primordial black holes would have a hard time wrapping such disks around themselves, according to NASA.<\/span><span class=\"credit wp-credit-3146555\">NASA Goddard Space Flight Center<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Why all the hype?<\/h2>\n<p>The new era of excitement about primordial black holes traces back to 2016. That year, scientists shared the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.snexplores.org\/article\/say-hello-gravity-waves\">first detection of gravitational waves<\/a>. Those waves had been churned up by a pair of black holes smashing into each other.<\/p>\n<p>Until that point, only two types of black holes were known to exist in abundance. One type was \u201cstellar\u201d black holes. This kind forms when a very massive star runs out of fuel and its core collapses in on itself. Stellar black holes generally have masses between five and 10 times the mass of the sun.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"wp-block-sciencenews-inline-related-post alignleft\">\n<h4><a href=\"https:\/\/www.snexplores.org\/article\/explainer-what-are-gravitational-waves\">Explainer: What are gravitational waves?<\/a><\/h4>\n<\/aside>\n<p>The second common type of black hole was \u201csupermassive\u201d black holes. These sit at the centers of galaxies and can weigh billions of times as much as the sun. Such cosmic monsters may have formed from the collapse of huge clouds of gas. Or they might have formed through the mergers of many stellar black holes.<\/p>\n<p>But the first detected gravitational waves were kicked up by black holes that each weighed about 30 suns. In other words, they were bigger than typical stellar black holes. But they were nowhere near big enough to be supermassive.<\/p>\n<p>Simeon Bird recalls puzzling over the masses. This cosmologist works at the University of California, Riverside. He wondered: Why would the first known gravitational waves come from black holes with such seemingly rare size? Surely it would have been more likely for the first detection to come from black holes of more common sizes.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<p><div class=\"youtube-embed\" data-video_id=\"HwC5IYw5uAE\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"What are gravitational waves? | Science News\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/HwC5IYw5uAE?feature=oembed&#038;enablejsapi=1\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">What exactly are gravitational waves, and how do we detect them? Let\u2019s explore.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cMaybe it\u2019s a primordial black hole,\u201d Bird recalls saying with a laugh. \u201cWhat a silly idea.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But Bird and others soon realized it might not be so silly after all.<\/p>\n<p>Since then, other strange features have turned up. The first waves were picked up by a U.S.-based detector called LIGO. (That\u2019s short for Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory.) Italy\u2019s Virgo detector and Japan\u2019s KAGRA detector have joined the hunt. So far, these machines have found more than 80 black hole mergers \u2014 which have raised many new questions.<\/p>\n<p>Some scientists are puzzled by the slow spins of the black holes. Others are perplexed by the number of mergers between black holes of dramatically different masses. Still others are intrigued by how often black holes seem to be merging across cosmic time.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are many properties that are bizarre,\u201d says S\u00e9bastien Clesse. This cosmologist works at the Universit\u00e9 Libre de Bruxelles in Belgium. Primordial black holes could help explain the unexpected findings, he says.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignwide size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1440\" height=\"1111\" src=\"https:\/\/www.snexplores.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/1440_cosmic_timeline_Big_Bang_today.png\" alt=\"a timeline showing major events in the history of our universe\" class=\"wp-image-3118459\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.snexplores.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/1440_cosmic_timeline_Big_Bang_today.png 1440w, https:\/\/www.snexplores.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/1440_cosmic_timeline_Big_Bang_today-496x383.png 496w, https:\/\/www.snexplores.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/1440_cosmic_timeline_Big_Bang_today-583x450.png 583w, https:\/\/www.snexplores.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/1440_cosmic_timeline_Big_Bang_today-241x186.png 241w, https:\/\/www.snexplores.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/1440_cosmic_timeline_Big_Bang_today-768x593.png 768w, https:\/\/www.snexplores.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/1440_cosmic_timeline_Big_Bang_today-752x580.png 752w, https:\/\/www.snexplores.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/1440_cosmic_timeline_Big_Bang_today-1006x776.png 1006w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1440px) 100vw, 1440px\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><span class=\"caption wp-caption-3118459\">This image runs through some of the most important events in the history of our universe, from the Big Bang to today. Inflation was a time of superfast expansion in the extremely early universe.<\/span><span class=\"credit wp-credit-3118459\">ESA and the Planck Collaboration; adapted by L. Steenblik Hwang<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How to make a primordial black hole<\/h2>\n<p>In the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.snexplores.org\/article\/what-happened-since-big-bang-physics-universe-cosmic-timeline\">tiniest of the tiniest of fractions of a second<\/a> after the Big Bang, the universe was nothing but a hot, compact ball of energy. Then, it expanded \u2014 faster and faster. It grew by a factor of at least 10<sup>25<\/sup>\u00a0in less than a trillionth of a trillionth of a trillionth of a second. That superfast ballooning is known as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.snexplores.org\/article\/started-with-big-bang-what-happened-next-physics-universe-cosmos\">inflation<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>During this time, tiny variations in the energy density of the universe could have also grown by a lot. In fact, some pockets of the universe may have become so dense that they could have collapsed into black holes.<\/p>\n<p>This is just one way primordial black holes could have formed, some 13.8 billion years ago. Other ideas involve even stranger physics. But all you really need to make a primordial black hole is a large energy density, says Florian K\u00fchnel. He\u2019s a theoretical physicist at the Max Planck Institute for Physics. That\u2019s in Munich, Germany.<\/p>\n<p>If they did form, primordial black holes would have had a much wider range of masses than those seen today. There would have been black holes about the mass of a wildebeest. Others would have had the mass of Mount Everest. Still others would have had roughly the masses of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.snexplores.org\/article\/scientists-say-asteroid-meteor-meteorite\">asteroids<\/a>, planets and stars \u2014 or a million stars.<\/p>\n<p>Some of those primordial black holes\u00a0might be behind the unexpected gravitational wave findings. But the existing evidence is nowhere near clear-cut. There could be other explanations based on known physics.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Hunting with gravitational waves<\/h2>\n<p>There are two signs that most scientists agree would point to a primordial black hole.<\/p>\n<p>The first would be a black hole from before the first stars and galaxies formed. Perhaps within the first hundred million years after the Big Bang. In astronomy, looking far away is the same as looking back in time. Here\u2019s why.<\/p>\n<p>Gravitational waves coming from very far away have taken a very long time to reach us. So scientists know that any waves picked up from very far away must have been kicked up a very long time ago. Such waves can tell researchers what was happening in the extremely early universe.<\/p>\n<p>Existing gravitational wave detectors can\u2019t look far enough away \u2014 and therefore far enough back in time \u2014 to see the cosmos before the first stars. But future detectors might.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"680\" height=\"526\" src=\"https:\/\/www.snexplores.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/090523_ec_gravitational-waves_inline1.jpg\" alt=\"Illustration showing three spacecraft connected by red lasers orbiting the sun. Colliding supermassive black holes in a distant galaxy also emit gravitational waves in the background.\" class=\"wp-image-3131203\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.snexplores.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/090523_ec_gravitational-waves_inline1.jpg 680w, https:\/\/www.snexplores.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/090523_ec_gravitational-waves_inline1-495x383.jpg 495w, https:\/\/www.snexplores.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/090523_ec_gravitational-waves_inline1-582x450.jpg 582w, https:\/\/www.snexplores.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/090523_ec_gravitational-waves_inline1-240x186.jpg 240w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 680px) 100vw, 680px\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><span class=\"caption wp-caption-3131203\">The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna, or LISA, will be made up of three spacecraft orbiting the sun. (One of the spacecraft is illustrated in foreground, with Earth orbiting the sun in the background, along with a distant galaxy.)<\/span><span class=\"credit wp-credit-3131203\">Simon Barke\/University of Florida (<a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/\" rel=\"noopener\">CC BY 4.0<\/a>)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>One such detector is the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencenews.org\/article\/gravitational-waves-detection-lasers-atoms\" rel=\"noopener\">space-based LISA gravitational wave observatory<\/a>. It\u2019s planned for launch in the 2030s. Two others are the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.einsteintelescope-emr.eu\/en\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Einstein Telescope<\/a> and the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/cosmicexplorer.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Cosmic Explorer<\/a>. Such tools could search the ultra-ancient universe for primordial black holes from before the first stars and galaxies.<\/p>\n<p>The second clear sign of a primordial black hole would be one that weighs about as much as the sun or less. That\u2019s because stellar black holes are believed to form through the collapse of stars several times the mass of the sun.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf LIGO found a one-solar-mass black hole, then everyone would be convinced primordial black holes are real,\u201d says Earl Bellinger. This stellar astrophysicist works at Yale University in New Haven, Conn. There\u2019s no other agreed-upon way to form a black hole that size, he says. \u201cAnd if it is less than one solar mass, even better.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Existing gravitational wave detectors might be able to spot such sun-sized black holes. The Einstein Telescope and the Cosmic Explorer would boost the search.<\/p>\n<section class=\"newsletter-signup__wrapper___lZ0W1 wp-block-house-ads wp-block-newsletter-signup\">\n<picture><source srcset=\"https:\/\/www.snexplores.org\/wp-content\/themes\/sciencenews-sns-child\/client\/src\/images\/cta-module@1x.png 1x,&#10;&#9;&#9;&#9;&#9;https:\/\/www.snexplores.org\/wp-content\/themes\/sciencenews-sns-child\/client\/src\/images\/cta-module@2x.png 2x\" media=\"(min-width: 768px)\"><source srcset=\"https:\/\/www.snexplores.org\/wp-content\/themes\/sciencenews-sns-child\/client\/src\/images\/cta-module-sm@1x.png 1x,&#10;&#9;&#9;&#9;&#9;https:\/\/www.snexplores.org\/wp-content\/themes\/sciencenews-sns-child\/client\/src\/images\/cta-module-sm@2x.png 2x\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"newsletter-signup__background___Eym8W\" src=\"https:\/\/www.snexplores.org\/wp-content\/themes\/sciencenews-sns-child\/client\/src\/images\/cta-module-sm@2x.png\" alt=\"\"\/><br \/>\n<\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<div class=\"newsletter-signup__container___srNOL\" data-component=\"newsletter-signup\">\n<h3 class=\"newsletter-signup__heading___0EHmb\">\n\t\t\tEducators and Parents, Sign Up for The Cheat Sheet\t\t<\/h3>\n<div class=\"newsletter-signup__message___pemaq\">\n<p>Weekly updates to help you use <em>Science News Explores<\/em> in the learning environment<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p class=\"newsletter-signup__thankyou___K6GGN\">Thank you for signing up!<\/p>\n<p class=\"newsletter-signup__error___hCsJI\">There was a problem signing you up.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Black holes inside stars<\/h2>\n<p>Gravitational waves might not be the only way to find primordial black holes. Some physicists have wondered what would happen if a small primordial black hole lurked inside a star. That black hole might have an observable effect on the star.<\/p>\n<p>Exactly what that effect might be, though, remains something of a mystery. Scientists don\u2019t know how fast a black hole with a moon- or asteroid-sized mass would feed and grow within a star. It\u2019s unclear if the star\u2019s light could escape the black hole\u2019s gravity.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe black hole has this all-you-can-eat buffet, which is the stellar plasma. And you might think the star just falls into it, which might happen,\u201d Bellinger says. \u201cBut if it falls in almost at an angle, you expect everything around that to get heated up. If it gets heated up, it exerts some pressure and some [light] flows out.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bellinger and his colleagues recently looked into several scenarios for stars with black holes inside. Such dark-hearted stars are called\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/arxiv.org\/abs\/2312.06782\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Hawking stars<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe most fun scenario is if the energy does get out,\u201d Bellinger says. In that case, you\u2019d see a type of red giant star known as a red straggler. There are other, non-black hole explanations for the stars\u2019 appearance. But studies of the light signals from these stars over time could distinguish a Hawking star from other red stragglers.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<p><div class=\"youtube-embed\" data-video_id=\"Q6kJaMf3Lgo\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"What If There&#039;s A Black Hole Inside The Sun? | Hawking Stars\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Q6kJaMf3Lgo?feature=oembed&#038;enablejsapi=1\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">If a black hole could lurk inside a star \u2014 called a Hawking star \u2014 maybe our sun could hide a black hole too. PBS Space Time explores.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Black holes gone but not forgotten<\/h2>\n<p>There might even be a way to find some primordial black holes that no longer exist.<\/p>\n<p>One team recently looked into the formation of primordial black holes slightly after inflation, but still very early in cosmic history. Say, only around 10<sup>\u221220<\/sup>\u00a0seconds after the Big Bang. At that time, particles known as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.snexplores.org\/article\/scientists-say-quark\">quarks<\/a> and gluons floated freely through the universe. They had not yet bound together to form the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.snexplores.org\/article\/scientists-say-proton\">protons<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.snexplores.org\/article\/scientists-say-neutron-definition-pronunciation\">neutrons<\/a> that now make up <a href=\"https:\/\/www.snexplores.org\/article\/scientists-say-atom\">atoms<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>As primordial black holes formed, they would have swallowed up nearby quarks and gluons. In the process, they would have also picked up a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.snexplores.org\/article\/lets-learn-about-quantum-realm-physics\">quantum property<\/a> of those particles called <em>color charge<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Big primordial black holes would pick up so much color charge that those charges would likely cancel out. That would leave the big black holes with no overall charge. But that wouldn\u2019t be true for the tiniest black holes. They could be left with some color charge.<\/p>\n<p>Any primordial black holes small enough to have color charge would be long gone by now. As black holes leak energy into space, they lose mass. So they eventually evaporate. But puny, color-charge black holes could have left behind some imprints. For example, they could have affected the ratios of light elements that formed in the early universe.<\/p>\n<p>If signs of past color-charge black holes are found, that would hint that some larger primordial black holes without color charge are still around today. And it is today\u2019s primordial black holes that could solve the dark matter mystery.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1030\" height=\"580\" src=\"https:\/\/www.snexplores.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/1030_cernquark.png\" alt=\"CERN tunnel\" class=\"wp-image-3001312\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.snexplores.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/1030_cernquark.png 1030w, https:\/\/www.snexplores.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/1030_cernquark-330x186.png 330w, https:\/\/www.snexplores.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/1030_cernquark-680x383.png 680w, https:\/\/www.snexplores.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/1030_cernquark-768x432.png 768w, https:\/\/www.snexplores.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/1030_cernquark-800x450.png 800w, https:\/\/www.snexplores.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/1030_cernquark-1028x579.png 1028w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1030px) 100vw, 1030px\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><span class=\"caption wp-caption-3001312\">Scientists have used the world\u2019s most powerful particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider (pictured), to search for new particles that might explain dark matter. Searches here and using other instruments have so far come up empty.<\/span><span class=\"credit wp-credit-3001312\">CERN (<a href=\"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/4.0\/\" rel=\"noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0<\/a>)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Explaining dark matter<\/h2>\n<p>Primordial black holes have long been overshadowed by another possible explanation for dark matter. Namely, that some yet unseen particles make up the stuff. But after decades of searching for such particles, scientists are still coming up empty.<\/p>\n<p>Cosmologist Anne Green compares the search for these particles to looking for a needle in a haystack. We\u2019re now most of the way through the haystack with no needle found, says Green, of the University of Nottingham in England. It doesn\u2019t mean the particles aren\u2019t there. But confidence that they\u2019ll be found is starting to dwindle.<\/p>\n<p>That may mean it\u2019s time for primordial black holes to shine.<\/p>\n<p>In one sense, primordial black holes are a less far-fetched explanation for dark matter than mystery particles. At least we know that black holes generally exist. But explaining the formation of black holes so early in the universe requires new physics. Scientists\u2019 typical <a href=\"https:\/\/www.snexplores.org\/article\/scientists-say-model-definition-pronunciation\">models<\/a> of inflation don\u2019t create extreme enough variations in energy density to make black holes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf I just write down a model for inflation, it doesn\u2019t produce any black holes at all,\u201d says Will Kinney. \u201cI have to really do some violence to that in order to get it to make black holes.\u201d Kinney is a cosmologist at the University of Buffalo in New York.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-group cheat-sheet-cta\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\">\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\">Do you have a science question? We can help!<\/h2>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/forms.gle\/YbhPosFTMqjbSNnV7\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Submit your question here<\/a>, and we might answer it an upcoming issue of\u00a0<em>Science News Explores<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Accounting for all the dark matter in the universe would also require the right amount of black holes at the right masses. The smallest ones have already evaporated. And there can\u2019t be that many jumbo-sized ones out there. Otherwise, their gravitational tugs on other matter, or the light thrown off in their feeding frenzies, would\u2019ve already given them away.<\/p>\n<p>Most scientists believe that only black holes with asteroid-like masses could explain most of the dark matter. But some scientists argue black holes with masses similar to the sun could do the trick.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe idea that primordial black holes might contribute to dark matter in some way is not too much of a stretch,\u201d Kinney says. \u201cThe fact that the black holes might be all of the dark matter, that\u2019s a tougher sell for me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s always possible that dark matter isn\u2019t just one thing. It might be a mix of types of things \u2014 like ordinary matter is. Some physicists also argue that changes to our understanding of gravity might explain away dark matter.<\/p>\n<p>Even if primordial black holes turn out not to exist, working on them won\u2019t have been for nothing, Clesse says.\u00a0All the scientists studying primordial black holes are gaining a ton of insights into the early universe.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is not useless,\u201d Clesse says. \u201cIt is science.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside class=\"sn-conversion rich-text\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.snexplores.org\/article\/ancient-black-holes-dark-matter\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A yet-unseen population of ancient black holes may be lurking throughout the universe. If they exist, these bottomless cosmic pits would have a lot in common with known types of black holes. But unlike known black holes, the mysterious kind would have formed right after the Big Bang \u2014 before stars and galaxies even existed. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":233105,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.snexplores.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/primordial-black-hole-still-4k-small-copy.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[606],"tags":[8221,5831,1866,7267,6776,1158,2355],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233104"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233104"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233104\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":233106,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233104\/revisions\/233106"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/233105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}