There may be many more black holes than previously thought.

[Aethon]

By combining data from Chandra and several other telescopes, astronomers have identified the true nature of an unusual source in the Milky Way galaxy. This discovery implies that there could be a much larger number of black holes in the Galaxy that have previously been unaccounted for. The main panel shows X-rays from Chandra (purple) that have been overlaid on an optical image from Hubble. The insets show the source is bright in radio waves, but can only be giving off a very small amount of X-rays. These pieces of information indicate the source contains a black hole with a few times the mass of the Sun.

Credits: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Univ. of Alberta/B.Tetarenko et al; Optical: NASA/STScI; Radio: NSF/NRAO/VLA/Curtin Univ./J. Miller-Jones

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/chandra/clandestine-black-hole-may-represent-new-population.html

What percentage of the 'missing mass' of the universe could this account for?

Could this begin to explain dark matter?  

Does it mean MACHOS are much more culpable than WIMPS?  

 

Discuss please.

 

[Bill Phil]

I guess black holes are technically "dark..."

Dark energy would still be unexplained though.

[PB666]

6 hours ago, Aethon said:

By combining data from Chandra and several other telescopes, astronomers have identified the true nature of an unusual source in the Milky Way galaxy. This discovery implies that there could be a much larger number of black holes in the Galaxy that have previously been unaccounted for. The main panel shows X-rays from Chandra (purple) that have been overlaid on an optical image from Hubble. The insets show the source is bright in radio waves, but can only be giving off a very small amount of X-rays. These pieces of information indicate the source contains a black hole with a few times the mass of the Sun.

Credits: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Univ. of Alberta/B.Tetarenko et al; Optical: NASA/STScI; Radio: NSF/NRAO/VLA/Curtin Univ./J. Miller-Jones

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/chandra/clandestine-black-hole-may-represent-new-population.html

What percentage of the 'missing mass' of the universe could this account for?

Could this begin to explain dark matter?  

Does it mean MACHOS are much more culpable than WIMPS?  

 

Discuss please.

 

These black hokes are a dozen solar masses, there are many in each galaxy but nowhere near the amoint of energy in the form of dark gravity. 

[UmbralRaptor]

"Because this study only covered a very small patch of sky, the implication is that there should be many of these quiet black holes around the Milky Way. The estimates are that tens of thousands to millions of these black holes could exist within our Galaxy, about three to thousands of times as many as previous studies have suggested." [emphasis added]

 

The Milky Way's stars are on the order of 1e10 solar masses, and the dark matter halo is on the order of 1e11 solar masses. Using a high estimate of 10 million and silly high mass of 100 solar masses for stellar black holes, that gives 1e9 solar masses. So this does not represent a significant fraction of dark matter. Note that my estimates of black hole masses were rather optimistic, and the population could easily amount to <1e7 solar masses.