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from the shedding-some-light-on-the-matter dept.
Dark Matter is Not Made Up of Tiny Black Holes:
An international team of researchers has put a theory speculated by the late Stephen Hawking to its most rigorous test to date, and their results have ruled out the possibility that primordial black holes smaller than a tenth of a millimeter make up most of dark matter. Details of their study have been published in this week's Nature Astronomy.
Scientists know that 85 per cent of the matter in the Universe is made up of dark matter. Its gravitational force prevents stars in our Milky Way from flying apart. However, attempts to detect such dark matter particles using underground experiments, or accelerator experiments including the world's largest accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider, have failed so far.
This has led scientists to consider Hawking's 1974 theory of the existence of primordial black holes, born shortly after the Big Bang, and his speculation that they could make up a large fraction of the elusive dark matter scientists are trying to discover today.
The scientists theorized that primodial black holes between Earth and the Andromeda galaxy. Were one to lie between us and a star, then it would cause the star to appear to brighten for a few minutes or hours.
From 190 images of the Andromeda galaxy taken over the course of a single, 7-hour observation, the researchers expected to see about 1000 events. They saw... just one. They haven't given up trying to locate the "missing mass" — mass we have not yet identified, but would be needed to explain the orbital properties of galaxies. To wit:
The researchers are now planning to further develop their analysis of the Andromeda galaxy. One new theory they will investigate is to find whether binary black holes discovered by gravitational wave detector LIGO are in fact primordial black holes.
Journal Reference:
Hiroko Niikura, et. al. Microlensing constraints on primordial black holes with Subaru/HSC Andromeda observations. Nature Astronomy, 2019; DOI: 10.1038/s41550-019-0723-1
(Score: 5, Insightful) by bradley13 on Wednesday April 03 2019, @11:58AM (21 children)
"Scientists know that 85 per cent of the matter in the Universe is made up of dark matter."
Um...no, they "know" no such thing. Scientists know that gravity doesn't appear to behave as they expect, when observing distant objects. Dark matter is a kludge. There are other kludgy theories, like having natural constants vary over time and space, or fudging the cosmological constant.
Personally, I think the FSM has stashed some extra pasta in another dimension, and we're detecting the resulting gravity. Squid-ink pasta - hence "dark matter".
The real explanation almost certain lies elsewhere. We just haven't figured it out yet.
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 3, Funny) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday April 03 2019, @12:05PM (16 children)
Missing socks. You know how every time you wash whites you end up with at least one unmatched sock? It's out in space confusing physicists along with all its unmatched friends.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 4, Funny) by c0lo on Wednesday April 03 2019, @12:34PM (15 children)
The easiest and most immediate solution to solve the problem of the white sock missing after wash, never lost one ever since I discovered it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday April 03 2019, @12:49PM (10 children)
Das racis!
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 03 2019, @02:44PM (4 children)
That's right! You're supposed to say, *I only wear colored socks*. It's more inclusive.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 03 2019, @04:17PM (1 child)
It should have been "dark socks"...
(Score: 3, Funny) by bob_super on Wednesday April 03 2019, @05:50PM
Talking about Dark Socks in the comment about a space article makes me think that Mel Brooks could make another Star Wars parody...
The problem would be getting sued by Disney, who are also doing that.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 03 2019, @07:56PM
My socks are African-American... uh... Mexican.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday April 03 2019, @10:19PM
No, black socks reign supreme on my feet, you won't see any other colour.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 3, Funny) by c0lo on Wednesday April 03 2019, @11:01PM (4 children)
A younger and more inquiring mind would have liked to know "if a black sock develops a hole, what colour will that hole be?"
Looks like your mind is too full of answers to allow new questions (grin)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday April 04 2019, @12:26AM (3 children)
No, I just already had the answer to that one. Toe colored.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday April 04 2019, @01:29AM (2 children)
True while worn, still a mystery while in the washing machine (as still a mystery is the nature of the interaction with the rest of the load).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday April 04 2019, @12:26PM (1 child)
Schrödinger's sock then?
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday April 04 2019, @12:41PM
It predates Schrödinger by at least some centuries, 't's a Hamletian sock
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by BK on Wednesday April 03 2019, @03:28PM (1 child)
Agreed. And they never get dirty!
...but you HAVE heard of me.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 03 2019, @10:15PM
Oh, but they do. When they do, they are sorta turning towards white.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 04 2019, @01:16AM (1 child)
So *YOU* are the source of this ominous dark matter thing!
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday April 04 2019, @01:26AM
Inconclusive. The colour of the matter emitted by holes in black socks in not yet settled.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 03 2019, @02:21PM (1 child)
I think we need to kill more cats ..... that will give some answers to this problem /dark humor
(Score: 2) by Osamabobama on Wednesday April 03 2019, @07:24PM
What's the matter with dark humor?
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 03 2019, @03:36PM (1 child)
Is dark matter an extra-dimensional effect? [arxiv.org]
- M. E. Kahil, T. Harko
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 03 2019, @04:21PM
Interesting.