NASA Uncovers Millions of New Black Holes 77
coondoggie writes "NASA today said its Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer satellite has unearthed a 'bonanza of new-found supermassive black holes and extreme galaxies called hot DOGs, or dust-obscured galaxies.' NASA said the latest discoveries help astronomers better understand how galaxies and the behemoth black holes at their centers grow and evolve together."
The news was released in a press conference, and io9 has a comprehensive write-up about everything that was covered, including the Q&A session. Pretty pictures here.
but enough about their budget... (Score:3, Interesting)
find any new ones in space?
Re:Missing mass of the universe? (Score:5, Interesting)
It doesn't. Basically the reasoning for dark matter is this :
Under Newtonian or Einsteinian physics, galaxies should rotate a lot slower on the outside, and quicker in the middle than than they actually do (a little like our solar system behaves). No one can explain why they do not, satisfactorily yet.
Dark matter is an explanation which proposes that there is undetectable matter causing the gravity interference which does explain the mechanics of galactic movements. Trouble is, we haven't got a hold of dark matter yet, so although it's an explanation, it's not concrete by any means. If you want a definite explanation, you're probably going to have to go to your priest.
Black holes don't fit. There aren't that many black holes, and despite the name, they are observable. If there were enough black holes to cause galaxies to rotate like they do, we'd have seen them already.