Space and astronomy news
Supermassive Black Holes are Nature’s confounding behemoths. It’s difficult for Earth-bound minds to comprehend their magnitude and power. Astrophysicists have spent decades studying them, and they’ve made progress. But one problem still baffles even them: the Final Parsec Problem.
New research might have solved the problem, and dark matter plays a role in the solution.
Continue reading “A Solution to the “Final Parsec Problem?””
Pulsars are the remnants of the explosion of massive stars at the end of their lives. The event is known as a supernova and as they rapidly spin they sweep a high energy beam across the cosmos much like a lighthouse. The alignment of some pulsar beams mean they sweep across Earth predictably and with precise regularity. They can be, and often are used as timing gauges but a team of astronomers have found subtle timing changes in some pulsars hinting at unseen mass between pulsars and telescopes—possibly dark matter entities.
Continue reading “Pulsars are the Ideal Probes for Dark Matter”
Dark matter is curious stuff! As the name suggests, it’s dark making it notoriously difficult to study. Although it’s is invisible, it influences stars in a galaxy through gravity. Now, a team of astronomers have used the Hubble Space Telescope to chart the movements of stars within the Draco dwarf galaxy to detect the subtle gravitational pull of its surrounding dark matter halo. This 3D map required studying nearly two decades of archival data from the Draco galaxy. They found that dark matter piles up more in the centre, as predicted by cosmological models.
Continue reading “Mapping the Stars in a Dwarf Galaxy to Reveal its Dark Matter”
Universe Today has had some incredible discussions with a wide array of scientists regarding impact craters, planetary surfaces, exoplanets, astrobiology, solar physics, comets, planetary atmospheres, planetary geophysics, cosmochemistry, meteorites, radio astronomy, extremophiles, organic chemistry, black holes, cryovolcanism, and planetary protection, and how these intriguing fields contribute to our understanding regarding our place in the cosmos.
Here, Universe Today discusses the mysterious field of dark matter with Dr. Shawn Westerdale, who is an assistant professor in the Department of Physics & Astronomy and head of the Dark Matter and Neutrino Lab at the University of California, Riverside, regarding the importance of studying dark matter, the benefits and challenges, the most exciting aspects about dark matter he’s studied throughout his career, and advice for upcoming students who wish to pursue studying dark matter. So, what is the importance of studying dark matter?
Continue reading “Dark Matter: Why study it? What makes it so fascinating?”
The quest to understand dark matter has taken many twists and turns. It’s a scientific tale but also a human one. We know there’s a missing mass problem, but astrophysicists and cosmologists can’t figure out what the missing matter is. One of the most interesting potential solutions is primordial black holes (PBHs).
However, new research suggests that PBHs can only make up a small portion of dark matter if any at all.
Continue reading “Another Strike Against Primordial Black Holes as an Explanation for Dark Matter”
Dark Matter is Nature’s poltergeist. We can see its effects, but we can’t see it, and we don’t know what it is. It’s as if Nature is playing tricks on us, hiding most of its mass and confounding our efforts to determine what it is.
Continue reading “If Gravity Can Exist Without Mass, That Could Explain Dark Matter”
What is Dark Matter? That question is prominent in discussions about the nature of the Universe. There are many proposed explanations for dark matter, both within the Standard Model and outside of it.
One proposed component of dark matter is primordial black holes, created in the early Universe without a collapsing star as a progenitor.
Continue reading “Primordial Black Holes Can Only Explain a Fraction of Dark Matter”
The Standard Model of particle physics does a good job of explaining the interactions between matter’s basic building blocks. But it’s not perfect. It struggles to explain dark matter. Dark matter makes up most of the matter in the Universe, yet we don’t know what it is.
The Standard Model says that whatever dark matter is, it can’t interact with itself. New research may have turned that on its head.
Continue reading “Evidence of Dark Matter Interacting With Itself in El Gordo Merger”
When astrophysicists observe the cosmos, they see different types of black holes. They range from gargantuan supermassive black holes with billions of solar masses to difficult-to-find intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) all the way down to smaller stellar-mass black holes.
But there may be another class of these objects: primordial black holes (PBHs) that formed in the very early Universe. If they exist, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope should be able to spot them.
Continue reading “Roman Space Telescope Will Be Hunting For Primordial Black Holes”
It’s that time again! Time for another model that will finally solve the mystery of dark matter. Or not, but it’s worth a shot. Until we directly detect dark matter particles, or until some model conclusively removes dark matter from our astrophysical toolkit the best we can do is continue looking for solutions. This new work takes a look at that old theoretical chestnut, primordial black holes, but it has a few interesting twists.
Continue reading “The Universe Could Be Filled With Ultralight Black Holes That Can't Die”