Scientists find the first observational evidence linking black holes to dark energy.
A group of researchers concluded that dark energy could be created inside black holes after comparing the growth rates of black holes in different galaxies. In two studies just released, scientists theorise that the dark energy expanding the cosmos may come from black holes.
The researchers come to the conclusion that the dispersion of masses seen could be explained by black holes harbouring cores of "dark energy," the enigmatic force driving the universe's accelerated expansion, in two papers published in The Astrophysical Journaland The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
Study first author Duncan Farrah, a University of Hawai'i astronomer and former Imperial PhD student, said: "We're really saying two things at once: that there's evidence the typical black hole solutions don't work for you on a long, long timescale, and we have the first proposed astrophysical source for dark energy.
"What that means, though, is not that other people haven't proposed sources for dark energy, but this is the first observational paper where we're not adding anything new to the universe as a source for dark energy: black holes in Einstein's theory of gravity are the dark energy."
"If the theory holds, then this is going to revolutionise 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 of STFC RAL Space, a co-author of a study on the discovery, said in a statement.