While dark energy has been known to take up a huge chunk of the universe, there is barely anything known about such a phenomenon. This has remained one of the greatest cosmic mysteries. It has been thought to be a force of some sort that outpowers gravity, pushes things apart, and accelerates the universe's expansion. Now, the Space Academy reports that a team of scientists has finally found where this dark energy source comes from.
Dark Energy Takes Up 70% of the 'Missing' Universe
More specifically, Imperial College London scientists explain that black holes could be the culprit for such a phenomenon. Study co-author Dr. Chris Pearson says that, if this theory persists, it may lead to a revolution in the entire field of cosmology.
Their work was documented in two papers, both of which were published in the Astrophysical Journal.
Astronomers have long-standingly thought that dark energy could lead to a revolution in physics. This is because, when it was first found two decades ago, it threatened the research of prominent physicist Albert Einstein. However, this international research team has finally found the first proof that dark energy does align with the theory of relativity.
The findings generally show that there is nothing new in the universe that has been added that could account for the presence of dark energy. Black holes, mixed with gravity, are their source.
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Black Holes Are the Source of Dark Energy
Dr. Dave Clements, study co-author from the Imperial's Department of Physics, says that the results are quite surprising. They have started observing the growth of black holes as time passes and could now have discovered the solution to one of cosmology's biggest issues.
During the 1990s, scientists discovered the acceleration of the universe's expansion. All things move away from others at a rate that goes faster and faster. The Imperial reports that it is quite hard to explain, as the gravity pull could hamper and slow down this expansion.
To explain this, it was suggested that dark energy could be the reason behind this pushing apart. Such an explanation was linked to one notion proposed by Einstein that was later scrapped, which was a cosmological constant of some sort that fought gravity and hampered the collapse of the universe.
However, black holes were quite an issue. Their remarkably strong gravity is difficult to go against, especially within their cores, where singularity leads virtually everything to break down.
Hence, the scientists dug deeper into this concern. They examined dormant and ancient galaxies and noticed that the mass of black holes increased in a manner that aligned with their holding dark energy. In fact, the size of the universe at various points in time closely aligned with the supermassive black hole mass at the galaxies' heart.
This means that the universe's dark energy could be attributed to vacuum energy from the black holes. This means that dark energy comes from these black holes.
Their study serves as the first observational proof that these black holes hold vacuum energy and are linked to the universe's expansion as their mass grows along with the universe. This is known as cosmological coupling.
If more observations verify this, cosmological coupling may reshape current understanding regarding black holes.
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