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There’s a theory which accounts for that called MACHO, for MAssive Compact Halo Object. While it’s possible, over many years of observation it’s very unlikely.
by dbasedweeb 9y ago
There’s a theory which accounts for that called MACHO, for MAssive Compact Halo Object. While it’s possible, over many years of observation it’s very unlikely. You can’t see a black hole directly, unless it’s “eating” of course, but you can see gravitational effects like lensing. If black holes and neutron stars made up most dark matter, we’d expect to see evidence of it, and we don’t. It is still possible, although Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) are more likely, along with Axions and Sterile Neutrinos.
- wallace_f 9y agoMy heretical theory of dark matter is that is just a byproduct of black holes gravitational effects. Probably something about so much mass punching such a deep curve in spacetime creates a widespread effect. Of course this is just a baseless theory, but it seems more reasonable to consider the possibilities of a realm which we know that we know almost nothing about, than inventing new particles or physics to fit the data. Again, not an educated theory.
- semi-extrinsic 9y agoThe trouble with this kind of theory is that for a force like gravity, if you consider the force outside a sphere surrounding the sun, the force is identical no matter how the mass inside is distributed, whether it's the sun or a solar mass black hole inside the sphere.
- wallace_f 8y agoAt extreme scales gravity may behave in strange and unexpected ways -- as do other phenomena.
- dbasedweeb 8y agoIt would have to be scales beyond the observable universe then, because it appears to operate as expected. If distance scales change things, then nearby galaxies would behave differently from very large clusters, quasars should display odd behavior, smaller galaxies would behave very differently from larger ones. We don’t see any of that.