Scientists believe that the "missing" 70% of the universe, which is likely the source of dark energy, can be inferred from observations of supermassive black holes at the cores of galaxies.
Black holes are developing more rapidly than anticipated, according to data taken from old and dormant galaxies, which is consistent with a behavior foreseen by Einstein's theory of gravity.
The conclusion suggests that black holes and Einstein's gravity are the sources of dark energy.
This finding was reached by a team of 17 researchers from nine different countries, including Imperial College London and STFC RAL Space experts, under the direction of the University of Hawaii.
IN SPACE: In this handout from NASA/ESA, an artist's concept illustrates a quasar, or feeding black hole. NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) revealed millions of potential black holes in its survey of the sky in 2011. The WISE telescope, which ceased operation is February of 2011 after it ran out of coolant to keep its electronics cool, made the full sky image and was released to the public in March with hopes of astronomers making discoveries. NASA/ESA via Getty Images
Revolutionize Cosmology
"This is a really surprising result. We started off looking at how black holes grow over time, and may have found the answer to one of the biggest problems in cosmology," Dr. Dave, Clements, one of the study's co-authors, said in a press release statement.
"If the theory holds, then this is going to revolutionize the whole of cosmology, because at last we've got a solution for the origin of dark energy that's been perplexing cosmologists and theoretical physicists for more than 20 years," Dr. Chris Pearson, also a co-author, adds.
According to the new finding, black holes grow mass in a manner that is consistent with them having vacuum energy. This suggests a source of dark energy and eliminates the necessity for singularities to form at the center of black holes.
The analysis of nine billion years of black hole evolution led to this new theory. Black holes emerge when huge stars die and they are known as supermassive black holes when they are located at the galactic centers.
With millions to billions of times our Sun's mass packed into a very small area, black holes have extremely strong gravitational fields.
The study focused on large elliptical galaxies, a form of galaxy that evolved early in the universe before going inactive.
According to the team, the black holes of today are 7-20 times larger than they were nine billion years ago. This growth was observed by comparing measurements of faraway galaxies when they were young with nearby elliptical galaxies, which are already old and dead.
When the universe expands, black holes gain mass, which is a phenomenon known as "cosmological coupling." This is the first observational proof that black holes genuinely possess vacuum energy.
If additional data support it, the cosmic coupling will change how scientists understand black holes.
