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posted by mrpg on Wednesday April 03 2019, @11:50AM   Printer-friendly
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.


Original Submission

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

 
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  • (Score: 3, Funny) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday April 03 2019, @12:05PM (16 children)

    by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Wednesday April 03 2019, @12:05PM (#824034) Homepage Journal

    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.
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  • (Score: 4, Funny) by c0lo on Wednesday April 03 2019, @12:34PM (15 children)

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday April 03 2019, @12:34PM (#824045) Journal

    You know how every time you wash whites you end up with at least one unmatched sock?

    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.

    I buy and wear only black socks.
    --
    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)

      by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Wednesday April 03 2019, @12:49PM (#824050) Homepage Journal

      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)

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 03 2019, @02:44PM (#824095)

        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)

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 03 2019, @04:17PM (#824127)

          It should have been "dark socks"...

          • (Score: 3, Funny) by bob_super on Wednesday April 03 2019, @05:50PM

            by bob_super (1357) on Wednesday April 03 2019, @05:50PM (#824168)

            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

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 03 2019, @07:56PM (#824214)

          My socks are African-American... uh... Mexican.

        • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday April 03 2019, @10:19PM

          by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday April 03 2019, @10:19PM (#824265) Journal

          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)

        by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday April 03 2019, @11:01PM (#824279) Journal

        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)

          by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Thursday April 04 2019, @12:26AM (#824302) Homepage Journal

          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)

            by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Thursday April 04 2019, @01:29AM (#824319) Journal

            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)

              by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Thursday April 04 2019, @12:26PM (#824445) Homepage Journal

              Schrödinger's sock then?

              --
              My rights don't end where your fear begins.
              • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday April 04 2019, @12:41PM

                by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Thursday April 04 2019, @12:41PM (#824456) Journal

                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)

      by BK (4868) on Wednesday April 03 2019, @03:28PM (#824110)

      Agreed. And they never get dirty!

      --
      ...but you HAVE heard of me.
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 03 2019, @10:15PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 03 2019, @10:15PM (#824262)

        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)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 04 2019, @01:16AM (#824315)

      So *YOU* are the source of this ominous dark matter thing!

      • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday April 04 2019, @01:26AM

        by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Thursday April 04 2019, @01:26AM (#824318) Journal

        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