Are Black Holes the source of Dark Energy? – with Dr Chris Pearson
Scientists find first evidence that black holes are the source of dark energy
Dr Chris Pearson - STFC RAL Space Astrophysicist, Imperial alumnus and co-author on the recent study
Observations of supermassive black holes at the centres of galaxies point to a likely source of dark energy – the ‘missing’ 70% of the Universe.
The measurements from ancient and dormant galaxies show black holes growing more than expected, aligning with a phenomenon predicted in Einstein's theory of gravity. The result potentially means nothing new has to be added to our picture of the Universe to account for dark energy: black holes combined with Einstein's gravity are the source.
The conclusion was reached by a team of 17 researchers in nine countries, led by the University of Hawai'i and including STFC RAL Space and Imperial College London physicists.
In this fascinating Fireside Chat we heard from Dr Chris Pearson, one of the study's co-authors.
"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." said Dr Pearson
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