Black Holes Are Dark

The above statement points to an obvious solution of the "dark matter" mystery. Since the work of Fritz Zwicky in the 1930's and Vera Rubin in the 1950's, astronomers have suspected that galaxies contain hidden mass. Something that is dark but has gravitational attraction is a perfect description of Black Holes, billions of them populating the galactic halo. Yet physicists tend to ignore Black Holes as "dark matter" candidates, preferring to search for exotic particles like neutralinos and WIMPS. None of these speculated particles has ever been found. Scientists from a particle physics background would prefer if the answer was in their exotic particles.

The August 23 issue of NEW SCIENTIST contains an interesting article:

Is the Universe Made of Holes?

"MOST of the matter in the universe gives out no light, or at least so little that it is currently undetectable. Yet we know it is out there because its gravity keeps stars and galaxies in their orbits. Pretty much everyone thinks that this so-called dark matter is made of hitherto undiscovered subatomic particles. Physicists are hopeful they will find a candidate in high-speed collisions at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, near Geneva, Switzerland.

"But could we have got dark matter all wrong? Mike Hawkins thinks so. He believes that rather than particles, what we call dark matter is actually legions of black holes created shortly after the big bang."

Because the speed of light was once much faster, primordial singularities could have formed with a variety of masses. Mathematics predicts
that 23.87% of mass will have collapsed into singularities, surrounding the galaxies in haloes of dark mass. Some of these primordial Black Holes could exist in our solar system, even within Earth's core. The solution to this dark mystery may be beneath our feet.

Peculiar

Apologies that this article took a few days to be noticed, from DAILY GALAXY:

Something Peculiar Is Going On

"Simulations based on the standard cosmological model indicate that galaxies should be uniformly distributed. But the universe appears to be clumpier than astronomers expected, according to the largest galaxy survey ever conducted."

Using data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, researchers made a 3-D map of 723,556 galaxies more than 4 billion light years away. Their paper appears in the June 13 issue of Physical Review Letters. The clumping found in the data could indicate that "dark energy" does not exist at all, and that we need to change old ideas about gravity. A change in the speed of light would account for the increased clumping quite nicely.

Physical Review Letters, 106, 241301, June 13, 2011

Through Gravity's Lens

Hubble photo of the gravitational lens in cluster Abell 383. The curving arcs are galaxies behind Abell, their images bent by gravity. This cluster has far more mass than is visible. Abell 383 would also be a good place to seek massive Black Holes.

Monday night attendees at the Humans in Space Symposium were treated to a showing of the Hubble IMAX 3-D movie at Houston's Museum of Natural Science. The film was introduced by astrophysicist, former astronaut and Hubble repairman Dr, John Grunsfeld. (The very next night HMNS was site of a Tweetup celebrating Yuri's night.)

A galaxy newly found by Hubble and the Swift telescope has been found to have formed only 950 million years after the Big Bang. Astronomers used our Keck 2 telescope atop Mauna Kea to determine the galaxy's redshift. Stars within this galaxy appear to be 750 milllion years old, meaning they were formed when the Universe was only 200 million years old. Space.com story. Old theories of star formation can not explain how they could have formed when the Universe was so young. The cores of these stars may have formed around primordial Black Holes.

Rings

This photo has been circulating in the blogosphere. A ring of Black Holes (pink) seen by the Chandra X-Ray telescope, superimposed on a ring of stars (blue) seen by the Hubble Space Telescope. Arp 147, 430 million light-years away, is the result of two galaxies colliding.

Old, Old Galaxy

On January 26 NASA announced that Hubble Space Telescope has discovered the oldest galaxy yet found. UDFj-39546284 was found by the Wide Field Camera 3, which was installed during the 2009 servicing mission. The galaxy has a redshift of 10.3, making it 13.2 billion years old. It must have been formed just 500 million years after the Big Bang, making it the oldest galaxy yet discovered. This is subject of a paper in the January 26 issue of NATURE.

Old theories of galaxy formation can not explain this discovery. Every galaxy ever discovered contains at its centre a supermassive Black Hole. These Black Holes could be primordial, formed shortly after the Big Bang. Size of a primordial Black Hole is limited by a "horizon distance" related to the speed of light. Discovery of galaxies formed soon after the Big Bang is one more sign that the speed of light was once much faster.

Bubbles

Artist's image (not a telescope photo) of two enormous bubbles of gamma-ray emitting material discovered above and below our Milky Way. They were discovered by NASA's Fermi Gamma Ray observatory and extend about 25,000 light-years from the galactic plane. The bubbles are estimated to give off the energy of 100,000 supernova explosions. Astronomers are not sure what is giving off the gamma rays, but these bubbles could contain millions of tiny Black Holes. The Universe is far stranger than we imagine.

The Farthest Galaxy

The European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope has confirmed that the most distant object yet found is a fully formed galaxy. UDFy-38135539, first spotted by the Hubble Space Telescope, was formed just 600 million years after Big Bang. Like our Milky Way, this galaxy consists of luminous stars surrounding a supermassive Black Hole. ESO Press Release.

How massive Black Holes could have formed so soon after the Big Bang has long been a mystery. Size of a primordial Black Hole is limited by a "horizon distance," that light could have travelled. Once it was thought that light always had the same value, and primordial Black Holes would be tiny. Discovery of a fully-formed galaxy formed soon after the Big Bang is one more clue that the speed of light was once much greater.

The Farthest Galaxy

Astronomers from the University of Hawaii have found a galaxy surrounding the most distant supermassive Black Hole yet found, 12.8 billion years in the past. The Black Hole, found by the Subaru telescope atop Mauna Kea, has a billion times the mass of our Sun. It and the host galaxy were formed in the first billion years of the Universe. Present-day science can not explain how the giant Black Hole formed. The forthcoming paper concludes:

"The authors wish to recognize and acknowledge the very significant cultural role and reverence that the summit of Mauna Kea
has always had within the indigenous Hawaiian community. We are most fortunate to have the opportunity to conduct observations
from this sacred mountain."

Every galaxy examined contains at its centre a supermassive Black Hole. They are very likely primordial, formed in the immense densities following the Big Bang. Size of a primordial Black Hole is limited by a "horizon distance" related to the speed of light. If c were always the same value, PBH's would all be tiny. Discovery of massive primordial Black Holes is a clue that the speed of light has slowed.

Trillions

How much is a trillion? Watching old episodes of COSMOS, it is easy to recall Carl Sagan marvelling at “billions and billions.” Soon Americans will face a proposed annual deficit of 1.8 TRILLION dollars. This is a big, big number--so far removed from our experience that few can conceive of it. Such numbers are beyond astronomical, for previously only physicists or astronomers had to use them. Perhaps someone thinks that voters are not intelligent enough to grasp 1.8 trillion. It is science’s duty to explain the meaning of trillions.

HOW BIG?

One trillion is 10 raised to the twelfth power, 10^12, 1 followed by 12 zeroes or 1,000,000,000,000. A million, million dollars are very difficult to put into perspective. A million dollar bills laid end to end would form a row 156 kilometres long. To make a trillion, each dollar in that row would be the base of a million-strong column. Each of those columns would reach 65 kilometres. A trillion dollar bills would cover an area of 10,000 square kilometers, large as the States of Hawaii or Massachusetts.

Such a pile of money would truly touch the sky. The paper that makes up dollar bills is 0.01 cm thick. If a trillion dollars were stacked one atop another, they would reach to 100,000 kilometres, more than 1/4 the distance to the Moon. Just stacking those dollars would create a Space Elevator and ensure perpetual access to Space. A trillion dollars would build a city-sized settlement on the Moon or a constellation of solar power satellites. Would the taxpayer get as much for a 1.8 trillion-dollar deficit?

Possibly the only way to envision astronomical numbers is through astronomy. Our Milky Way galaxy contains about 250 billion stars. The number of galaxies in the Universe is also in the hundreds of billions. The years 2000-2008 contained the highest US deficits in history. The highest of these deficits was 450 billion, roughly equal to the number of stars in a galaxy. The projected 2009 deficit is double the record, over 900 billion. The proposed deficit of 1.8 trillion is double 2009’s deficit, 7 times the number of stars in our galaxy! Humans on our tiny dot have barely the vision to conceive of such numbers, much less borrow them.

The proposed deficit is 6000 dollars for every woman, man and child in the US. Only 100 million Americans actually pay federal tax, so each would incur 18,000 dollars of additional debt in a single year. This would add to the 11 trillion dollars of existing US national debt; over 100,000 dollars for each taxpayer. In addition to his or her personal debt, each taxpayer already owes enough for a 4-year college degree, a light plane or a very nice car.

The deficit cannot be blamed on one political party. It grew during 2000-2008 and doubled in 2009, when one party was in power. One reason for the spike was the 700 billion dollar TARP bank “bailout,” signed by the same party’s President. The 787 billion-dollar “stimulus” package was pushed by the other party’s President. Many more billions were spent on "bailouts" for well-connected companies "too big to fail." (see below) These vast sums spent by both parties did not prevent the US from sliding into recession or stop today's unemployment from growing.

INFLATION

The downside of a deficit is inflation. If a government prints money excessively, it erodes the value of a currency and causes prices to rise. In extreme cases, like 1930’s Germany or Zimbabwe today, a currency can become virtually worthless. The last period of US inflation was in the 1970’s, beyond the memory of many voters. If deficits continue to grow, they may learn the meaning of inflation.

In the late 1970’s, when high prices were on everyone’s mind, physicist Alan Guth and others came up with the inflationary paradigm. According to this idea the early Universe inflated at warp speed, many times faster than light. Inflation had the convenient property of being untestable. No experiment could time-travel to the first 10^(-33) seconds of the Universe, or approach the titanic energies near the Big Bang.

Inflation would violate both the First Law of Thermodynamics (conservation of energy) and Relativity’s stipulation that nothing travels faster than light. The various inflationary theories rely on “inflatons,” scalar fields and other entities that have never been seen in Nature. Despite its lack of success the inflationary paradigm persists, crowding out more promising ideas like a changing speed of light.

ONE VOICE

This explanation of trillions may be a voice crying out in the wilderness. Few will likely read it; or it will be crowded out by noise in the media. Like inflation, a faulty idea can gain momentum of its own, drawing attention from a changing speed of light. A government will try to pass a 1.8 trillion-dollar deficit over a public which cannot conceive of such a number. The deficit, and the 11 trillion dollar national debt, will be passed on to our generation.

The Farthest Explosion

From the European Southern Observatory: Astronomers have detected the farthest object ever seen, a gamma ray explosion at a redshift of 8.2. The object exploded when the Universe was barely 600 million years old. GRB 090423 was first detected by the SWIFT spacecraft, which was designed to catch these gamma ray bursts "on the fly." Follow-on observations were made by the ESO Very Large Telescope in Paranal, Chile. ESO Press ReleaseThis GRB may be the sign of a massive Black Hole.

Separately, the Subaru telescope atop Mauna Kea has found a "blob" formed only 800 million years after the Big Bang. The object iss comparab;le in size to our Milky Way galaxy. Press Release Astronomers are baffled as to how such a large object could have formed so early. Possibly the best way to form a galaxy-size object is around a supermassive Black Hole. Giant Black Holes formed soon after the Big Bang are indicators that the speed of light has changed.

Thanks to the One-Minute Astronomer for the 100th Carnival of Space!

Galaxies Not Half-Baked

Infrared image of cluster XMMU J2235.3-2257 taken by Subaru telescope, seen at a distance 65% of the way back to the Big Bang. Green contours represent X-ray intensity measured by the XMM-Newton spacecraft, targeting the brightest galaxy in the cluster.

Just as scientists can't explain "acceleration" of the Universe, the very existence of large galaxies can not be explained. Until recently it was thought that large galaxies started small and got bigger by swallowing smaller ones. Researchers at Liverpool John Moores University cast doubt on the half-baked galaxy idea. Using our Subaru telescope atop Mauna Kea, they have peered back 2/3 of the way to the Big Bang. They found that even at this early time the heaviest galaxies weighed almost as much as today. Their results appear in this week's issue of NATURE. LJMU Press Release.

Each galaxy contains at its centre a massive Black Hole. The Black Holes appear to have formed in the first billion years of the Universe. Evidence may indicate that they are primordial, formed from quantum fluctuations shortly after the Big Bang. Size of a primordial Black Hole is limited by a "horizon distance" within light's reach. Primordial Black Holes were thought to be tiny because of the fixed speed of light. Discovery of massive galaxies containing giant Black Holes is more evidence that c was once much higher.

This weekend see dark skepticism in the Carnival of Space!

Dark Heart of Dwarf Galaxies

We were hoping to watch STS-119 launch Thursday. This writer was in JSC Building 2, near the Press Room, when the launch was scribbed at 1:37 PM CST. Hopefully the problem can be fixed by Sunday. If the delay lasts until Monday or Tuesday, they will shorten the mission by 1-2 EVA's. A longer delay will mean postponing the mission until after the Soyuz flight due March 26. This may impact the Hubble servicing mission STS-125 scheduled for May 12. However, a delay for that mission decreases the risk of debris from the February 10 satellite collision. In turn a delay in STS-125 will affect pad availability for the Ares 1-X test. It has been decided to keep both Pads 39A and 39B available for a possible shuttle rescue mission.

In the meantime, Hubble has found more evidence that small dwarf galaxies are held together by some sort of "dark" mass. By looking at the Perseus cluster 250 million light-years away, Hubble found dwarf galaxies in places where the cluster's gravity could tear them apart. Giant clusters like Perseus are probably anchored by enormous hidden Black Holes. The dwarf galaxies may also contain Black Holes. Calling them "dark matter" would be a misnomer since they were never matter at all. The Black Holes are probably primordial, formed from quantum fluctuations shortly after the Big Bang. Someday astronmers may find that "dark" mass is made of billions of Black Holes.

Black Holes Everywhere

UPDATE: From a previous trip to Long Beach, something else Big and Black. The Queen Mary 2 (seen from the deck of Queen Mary 1) has a mass of about 10^8 kg, that of a small Black Hole. Despite our close proximity, QM2 is not about to suck us up gravitationally. The allure of travel draws us to her anyway!

The American Astronomical Society (AAS) meeting in Long Beach this week was full of holes. Astronomer Elizabeth Humphreys and her team reported the stars can form near our galaxy's core and its supermassive Black Hole. Using the Very Large Array of radio telescopes, the team found stars in the act of forming just 7-10 light-years from the galactic centre. Astronomers once thought it impossible that stars could form amid the massive tidal forces here. They thought that stars must form elsewhere and migrate toward the core. Elizabeth's work shows that the stars form in place, through a process that old science can't explain.

Chris Carilli of the National Radio Astronomy Obesrvatory reported that supermassive Black Holes formed before the galaxies that contained them. Astronomers have long known that central Black Holes weigh a nearly constant percentage of a galaxy's mass, about 1 in 1000. Why this ratio exists in many galaxies has been a mystery. The new evidence suggests that giant Black Holes formed first and the galaxies, including our Milky Way, formed around them. NRAO Press Release

Evidence is mounting that supermassive Black Holes are primordial, formed soon after the Big Bang. Size of early Black Holes is limited by a "horizon distance." This is the distance within range of gravity, proportional to the speed of light. Once scientists thought that early Black Holes were tiny because c has been constant. Formation of supermassive Black Holes soon after the Big Bang is one more sign that the speed of light was once much faster.

Separately, beautiful physicist Katie Freese of University of Michigan has been promoting "dark matter stars." There are many holes in present theories of star formation. Katie believes that stars may have formed around cores of dark matter. If DM turns out to be Black Holes then stars could have them at their centres. If so, that would explain how stars can form so close to the galactic centre. Someday humans may realise that a Black Hole could exist in the second last place they expect, rising in front of our faces each morning. We think of that while watching the sun rise from the lanai.

The Centres of Galaxies

More on Black Holes from the European Southern Observatory: German astronomers have made a 16-year studies of stars orbiting the galactic centre. By tracking their orbits precisely, researchers can determine the size and location of our galaxy's central Black Hole. One of the stars has a period of only 12 years, completing one orbit within time of the study. The Black Hole is now estimated to have a mass of 4 million suns.

Astronomers have found thousands of stars orbiting in the core. More than 100 OB and Wolf-Rayet stars have been found that appear to have formed just a few milion years ago. Old theories of star formation can not explain how these stars exist. The immense tidal forces and radiation of the core should have torn them apart. Perhaps someday sastronomers will discover that stars contain Black Holes too.

Another team using ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT) has imaged the "Einstein Cross" (photo above) from 10 billion light-years away. The cross is actually 4 images of the same distant quasar, light bent into this image by gravity from a foreground galaxy. Quasars are some of the brightest objects in the Universe, powered by supermassive Black Holes. Huge singulairties formed shortly after the Big Bang is yeat another indicator of a changing speed of light.

Black Holes Get In Early

Artist's conception of galaxy 4C60.07

The Submillimeter Array atop Mauna Kea consists of eight radio dishes observing as one. The dishes can be moved among 24 different locations to give resolution as great as a single 500 meter dish. It was built as a partnership between the Harvard-Smithsonian zObservatory and the Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics in Taiwan. New observations here suggest that Supermassive Black Holes were common in early galaxies.

Two such galaxies were observed in a collision 12 billion years in the past. Galaxy 4C60.07 was first observed because of its bright radio emission. The radio signal is one sign of a rapidly spinning Black Hole. The latest observations reveal a previously unknown companion galaxy preventing 4C60.07 from forming stars. At a time when the Universe was less than 2 billion years old, both galaxies contained Supermassive Black Holes. CfA Press Release

Every galaxy ever found contains at its centre an enormous Black Hole. Even The Farthest Galaxies, formed barely 700 million years after the Big Bang contains a singularity. This is far too early for the Black Hole to have formed from stellar collapse. These Black Holes are likely primordial, formed from quantum fluctuations at a time near the Big Bang. Rapid expansion of the Universe grew the Black Holes to their enormous size, which seeded the formation of galaxies. Once primordial Black Holes were thought to be tiny. Their size would be limited by a "horizon distance" related to the speed of light. Discovery of primordial Supermassive Black Holes is one more sign of "c change" in physics.

Massive and Dark

On September 24 a mysterious Dark Flow was reported. Clusters of galaxies are being drawn toward an immense unseen mass. These could be ultra-massive Big Gulp Black Holes, far more massive than anything astronomers have imagined. This was predicted by the blog back in October 2006, Stirring Things Up.

"Expansion of the Universe is not uniform. Individual motions of galaxies can oppose the Hubble flow, like trout swimming upstream. The Milky Way and thousands of other galaxies are falling at 600 km/sec toward an unseen mass called the Great Attractor. This object has the mass of 10^16 Suns or 100,000 galaxies! It may be a true Black Hole, so monstrously massive that nothing can escape. There is evidence of another Great Attractor some 700 million years away.

"These monsters could be common, yet they are not counted in mass surveys. The missing 2/3 ascribed to "dark energy" may be hidden from us. It is foolish to think that humans know all that is out there. That is like Wile E. Coyote, Super Genius not realising that he is falling into an abyss."

Today another research group led by Mike Hudson from University of Waterloo reports that our region of the Universe is not expanding uniformly. One half of the sky appears to be expanding faster than the other half. Researchers conclude that massive, unseen structures exist in the Universe. These great attractors would not lie outside the Universe, but beyond our local group of galaxies. This will require revisions of the tired old cosmological model. UPDATE: Preprint of the new paper is entitled Consistently Large Flows on Scales of 100 Mpc/h: A Challenge for the Standard LCDM Cosmology.

Young With Magnetic Personality

In July this blog reported on Magnetic Galaxies formed early in the Universe's history (photo above.) Now astronomers have found that a galaxy formed 6.5 billion years ago has a magnetic field 10 times stronger than our Milky Way. As before, the discovery was made using radio astronomy. The world's biggest steerable radio telescope in Green Bank (West Virginia) directly measured the field of protogalaxy DLA-3C286. The results appear in the October 2 issue of NATURE.

These discoveries challenge old theories of galaxy formation. Every galaxy ever examined contains at its centre a supermassive Black Hole. This singularity's rotation causes huge magnetic fields to form in its vicinity. If the field billions of years ago was this strong, the Black Hole must have already been large. Rather than growing along with the galaxy, the Black Hole was supermassive from the start.

More and more evidence indicates that supermassive Black Holes are primordial, formed from quantum fluctuations grown huge by expansion of the Universe. Size of a PBH is limited by a horizon distance within light's reach. Previously scientists thought that Primordial Black Holes were tiny. Supermassive Black Holes within galaxies, including ours, are more indicators of a changing speed of light.

Going With the Flow?

According to Space.com, astronomers have discovered a mysterious Dark Flow. Giant clusters of galaxies appear to be moving at high speed toward a mysterious source of gravity. No known gravitational source can account for this massive flow. We have long known of a hidden "Great Attractor" pulling galaxies toward it. The mass causing this Dark Flow must be even more enormous.

In this picture from the Cosmic Microwave Background, white spots are moving clusters of galaxies. They are all being drawn toward the small region marked in violet. Since there is no visible source of mass, scientists are speculating that the mass is outside the visible Universe! They should consider this: perhaps the source of attraction is truly dark, an ultra-massive Hole in Space.

This was predicted back in October 2006, Stirring Things Up.

"Expansion of the Universe is not uniform. Individual motions of galaxies can oppose the Hubble flow, like trout swimming upstream. The Milky Way and thousands of other galaxies are falling at 600 km/sec toward an unseen mass called the Great Attractor. This object has the mass of 10^16 Suns or 100,000 galaxies! It may be a true Black Hole, so monstrously massive that nothing can escape. There is evidence of another Great Attractor some 700 million years away.

"These monsters could be common, yet they are not counted in mass surveys. The missing 2/3 ascribed to "dark energy" may be hidden from us. It is foolish to think that humans know all that is out there. That is like Wile E. Coyote, Super Genius not realising that he is falling into an abyss.

"A physicist can go with the flow, avoid risk, and not stand out. One can profess that the Universe is dominated by "dark energy" and the Sun circles the Earth. Such people end up complaining about their unsatisfying lives because they never make a difference. It is much more fun to stir things up!

Models can predict the 71.62% proportion of this dark mass. This is precisely the amount found by the WMAP spacecraft. Because the early speed of light was much larger, primordial Black Holes formed to immense size. These ultra-massive Holes cleared immense dark voids in Space. Today they would invisibly attract galaxies toward them, exactly as has been observed. This is one more indicator of a changing speed of light.

Green Ghost

Astronomy is abuzz with discovery by 25-year old Hanny van Arkel of a galaxy unlike any ever found. The Dutch schoolteacher found this strange object while participating in the Galaxy Zoo. This project invites anyone to classify galaxies from the vast Sloan Digital Sky Survey database. Hanny will likely be named a co-discoverer, increasing respect for "amateur" astronomers.

This hot green ring of gas is a starless galaxy, radiating from an unseen energy source. The object radiates with a greater intensity and temperature than could be accounted for by normal means. The central void in this object would be an excellent placed to seek a Black Hole. There could be many more dark objects out there. The 71.62% of the Universe ascribed to "dark energy" may be hidden in the voids.

Magnetic Galaxies

From the European Southern Observatory at Paranal Chile: Astronomers have found that young galaxies are surprisingly magnetic. Early in the Universe's history, these galaxies already had strong magnetic fields. This will force a rethink of how galaxies, including the Milky Way, first formed.

Quasars are extremely bright objects that predate the galaxies. By observing distant quasars, astronomers found that their light had passed through magnetic fields. These fields corresponded to the locations of galaxies. When the Universe was only 1/3 its present age, the magnetic fields were as strong as they are today. The results appear in the July 17 issue of NATURE.

We must ask, what caused the fields in the first place? Every galaxy ever examined contains at its centre a supermassive Black Hole. This singularity causes huge magnetic fields to form in its vicinity. If the field billions of years ago was just as strong, the Black Hole must have been just as big. Rather than growing along with the galaxy, the Black Hole was supermassive from the start. The quasars, even older, contained giant Black Holes when the Universe was extremely young.

More and more evidence indicates that supermassive Black Holes are primordial, formed from quantum fluctuations shortly after the Big Bang. Previously scientists thought that Primordial Black Holes were tiny because of the speed of light. Size of a PBH is limited by a horizon distance within light's reach. The supermassive Black Holes within galaxies, including ours, indicate a changing speed of light.