![]() "In the Milky Way Galaxy alone, there are at least 18 binary systems akin to our research subjects, which can provide rich information to help unravel the mystery of dark matter. "The study provides an important new direction for future dark matter research," Chan said. ![]() The EdUHK team intends to hunt for similar black hole binary systems to study in the future. This research gives scientists a new way to study dark matter distributed around black holes that may help them to be more proactive in their search. These emissions result from the collision and resulting merger of black holes – a rare event in the universe that can leave astronomers waiting a long time for sufficient data. The 10 most massive black hole findings from 2022Ĭhan explained that previous attempts to study dark matter around black holes have relied on the emission of high-energy light in the form of gamma rays, or ripples in space known as gravitational waves. 9 ideas about black holes that will blow your mind 8 ways we know that black holes really do exist This results in the dark matter being redistributed around the black holes, creating a "density spike" in their immediate vicinity that can subtly influence the orbit of surrounding objects. 30 in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, help to confirm a long-held theory in cosmology that black holes can swallow dark matter that comes close enough to them. "This is the first-ever study to apply the 'dynamical friction model' in an effort to validate and prove the existence of dark matter surrounding black holes," Chan Man Ho, the team leader and an associate professor in the Department of Science and Environmental Studies at EdUHK, said in a statement. The observed rate of orbital decay is around 50 times greater than the theoretical estimation of about 0.02 milliseconds of orbital decay per year for binary systems lacking dark matter. The simulations revealed that the observed rates of orbital decay matched the predictions of the friction model. "In the Milky Way Galaxy alone, there are at least 18 binary systems akin to our research subjects, which can provide rich information to help unravel the mystery of dark matter," Chan said.Using computer simulations of the black hole systems, the team applied a widely held model in cosmology called the dark matter dynamical friction model, which predicts a specific loss of momentum on objects interacting gravitationally with dark matter. Stars orbiting a black hole, on the other hand, are a little easier to come by. Understandably, that doesn't yield a lot of data for scientists to work with. The team's findings are some of the best evidence yet of a long-theorized "density spike" near black holes that should form from accreting dark matter.Ĭhan notes that previous studies relied on detecting gamma rays and gravitational waves, which are mostly produced by rare events like black hole mergers. "The study provides an important new direction for future dark matter research." Easier Pickings "This is the first-ever study to apply the 'dynamical friction model' in an effort to validate and prove the existence of dark matter surrounding black holes," Chan Man-ho, an astrophysicist at the Education University of Hong Kong, said in a statement. They soon found that the simulated rate of orbital decay based on the dark gravity model lined up "precisely" with the rates of decay they observed in the companion stars, indicating that large amounts of dark matter, which would produce enough gravity to tamper with nearby orbits, are clumping around black holes. The electrons are 100 times cooler than the ions in the plasma, and the disk rotates in the same direction the black hole spins. ![]() This diffuse glowing disk is made up of super-heated gas, or plasma, and charged particles. So to corroborate the hunch, the researchers ran a computer simulation of a dark matter dynamical friction model, which helps calculate the loss of momentum of objects in space due to what is, in effect, "drag" caused by gravity. The gas falling into the black hole forms a disk that, from Earth, appears to be face-on rather than from the edge. Those findings, the researchers suspect, reeked of some dark matter meddling. In reality, what they observed blew that out of the water: an astonishingly higher rate of one millisecond per year - 50 times the theoretical estimation. Normally, the orbits of these companion stars should gradually decay at an extremely minor rate of around 0.02 milliseconds per year. The researchers looked at two nearby black holes, each forming a binary system where a companion star continues to orbit it. We can, however, observe dark matter's gravitational influence, which is where the stars come into play. The Hole Pictureīy observing the orbits of stars in their pull, astronomers say they've found evidence that black holes are surrounded by substantial amounts of dark matter, according to a new study published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.ĭark matter is tricky to study because you can't observe it directly - even though it's believed to make up some 27 percent of the universe, dwarfing the mere five percent of ordinary, or baryonic, matter that we can see. ![]()
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