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Scientists Find Clues to Supermassive Black Holes and Dark Matter
Confirmed
In Short: Scientists may have found a significant clue to dark matter, a discovery that could help answer one of the universe's biggest unresolved questions.
Every large galaxy, like the Milky Way, contains a supermassive black hole, according to Daniel Mortlock, an astrophysicist at Imperial College London. These black holes grow by consuming material that heats up and outshines all the stars in the galaxy, he explained.
Among the rarest objects in the universe, high redshift quasars, which formed before the universe was a billion years old, offer clues to the formation of these supermassive black holes, which are thought to lie at the heart of every large galaxy. Understanding these objects is key to understanding how supermassive black holes helped form the massive spiral galaxies that populate the cosmos.
The discovery might pave the way for answering one of the biggest unresolved questions about our universe, according to the Independent. Scientists may have found the most significant indication of dark matter ever, an elusive, invisible substance thought to make up most of our universe.
The milestone was achieved through an international collaboration of 250 scientists and engineers from 39 institutions spanning six countries, including nine universities in the UK, the Independent reported. The scientists behind the find said that although the isolated result does not yet meet the statistical threshold for an official discovery, it was an intriguing step forward.
Today, the LZ collaboration scientists announced that they saw a particle collision that they cannot explain, according to Scientific American. The LZ collaboration announced the finding in a presentation at the TeVPA conference in Japan. LZ and its competitors are racing to pack as many atoms as possible into the quietest places they can find to catch these collisions.
Caught by the tank’s many cameras, the flash also sent an electric charge through hair-thin wires submerged in the liquid, according to Scientific American. This particle interaction, found during a search for dark matter, could be a hint that it actually exists, and open the opportunity to actually find it.
What's confirmed
What's still developing
- But the late astrophysicist Donald Lynden-Bell, a former director of Cambridge University’s renowned Institute of Astronomy, realized that quasars were powered by supermassive black holes.
- While scientists have spent decades trying to find a signal using a range of technologies, it has never been directly detected — until, perhaps, now.
- But new research led by USDA scientists finds that levels of these fatty acids in farmed salmon have dropped considerably, potentially making the agency’s own advice, and similar recommendations, including from the American Heart Association, outdated and insufficient.