Yet this deep cosmic mystery, which has perplexed scientists for nearly 85 years, may soon be coming to a close - possibly within the next year.Ī group of researchers led by NASA cosmologist Alexander Kashlinsky thinks the recent and groundbreaking discovery of gravitational waves could help rule out the idea that dark matter is made of exotic, hard-to-detect particles. An intriguing alternative view is that dark matter is made of black holes formed during the first second of our universe's existence, known as primordial black holes. Aside from exerting a gravitational pull, dark matter doesn't seem to interact with stars, planets, dust, atoms, subatomic particles, or any other 'normal' matter as we know it. Dark matter is a mysterious substance composing most of the material universe, now widely thought to be some form of massive exotic particle. One goal of Astropulse is to detect mini black holes that are evaporating due to Hawking radiation. Most were extremely tiny, and while those with the lowest-mass have likely evaporated, primordial black holes with larger masses may still exist - though even those have remained undetected.

It often indicates a user profile.Īstronomers call this material 'dark matter.' They know it's out there because its huge mass tugs on and shapes galaxies, but no one has ever detected the material itself. Primordial black holes Formed from the condensation of raw materials in the early cosmos, primordial black holes emerged soon after the Big Bang. Account icon An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders. Photons cannot escape from inside the black hole, but they are produced at or near the horizon by quantum fluctuations in the.