19 Oct '23 03:23>3 edits
https://www.quantamagazine.org/jwst-spots-giant-black-holes-all-over-the-early-universe-20230814/
The article linked to above indicates that the James Webb Space Telescope has uncovered anywhere from 10 to 100 times more quasars in the early universe than models have predicted. Quasars are identified with supermassive black holes in the nuclei of young galaxies. It's not been considered likely that, only half a billion years after the Big Bang, there would be so many black holes that are already so massive.
Some astronomers are theorizing that many black holes may have formed early on directly out of massive collapsing gas clouds, without stellar formation occurring.
It may be that there are many more black holes in the universe than previously hypothesized.
This older article addresses the possibility head-on:
https://www.quantamagazine.org/black-holes-from-the-big-bang-could-be-the-dark-matter-20200923/
So, newer findings are not contravening this possibility. Quite the opposite.
And then there are JuMBOs (Jupiter Mass Binary Objects). An article here discusses recent findings in the Orion nebula:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/02/science/orion-nebula-webb-planets.html
The New York Times has a paywall but I think one gets 5 free articles per month. Here's another place without a paywall that talks about the findings:
James Webb Space Telescope spots dozens of physics-breaking rogue objects floating through space in pairs
https://www.livescience.com/space/astronomy/james-webb-space-telescope-spots-dozens-of-physics-breaking-rogue-objects-floating-through-space-in-pairs
Pairs of Jupiter-sized objects are apparently swarming the nebula. To me, this increases the chances of there being many, many more rogue objects not associated with nebulae, floating under the radar in open space, up to and including perhaps brown dwarfs. Brown dwarfs are another type of heavenly beast that had been mooted back in the day (the 1980s) as being the source of dark matter.
Is ordinary matter finally making a comeback? Back when I was a teenager I found it highly puzzling that we were so damned sure that ordinary matter only comprised something like 5% of the mass of the universe. It would be wonderful to see the dark matter phantom dispelled by plain old ordinary matter, after all, and not by some magically invisible exotic particle that exists nowhere outside the imaginations of mathematical physicists.
Of course, not long ago neutrinos were thought to be massless.
The article linked to above indicates that the James Webb Space Telescope has uncovered anywhere from 10 to 100 times more quasars in the early universe than models have predicted. Quasars are identified with supermassive black holes in the nuclei of young galaxies. It's not been considered likely that, only half a billion years after the Big Bang, there would be so many black holes that are already so massive.
Some astronomers are theorizing that many black holes may have formed early on directly out of massive collapsing gas clouds, without stellar formation occurring.
It may be that there are many more black holes in the universe than previously hypothesized.
This older article addresses the possibility head-on:
https://www.quantamagazine.org/black-holes-from-the-big-bang-could-be-the-dark-matter-20200923/
It was an old idea of Stephen Hawking’s: Unseen “primordial” black holes might be the hidden dark matter. It fell out of favor for decades, but a new series of studies has shown how the theory can work.
So, newer findings are not contravening this possibility. Quite the opposite.
And then there are JuMBOs (Jupiter Mass Binary Objects). An article here discusses recent findings in the Orion nebula:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/02/science/orion-nebula-webb-planets.html
The New York Times has a paywall but I think one gets 5 free articles per month. Here's another place without a paywall that talks about the findings:
James Webb Space Telescope spots dozens of physics-breaking rogue objects floating through space in pairs
https://www.livescience.com/space/astronomy/james-webb-space-telescope-spots-dozens-of-physics-breaking-rogue-objects-floating-through-space-in-pairs
Pairs of Jupiter-sized objects are apparently swarming the nebula. To me, this increases the chances of there being many, many more rogue objects not associated with nebulae, floating under the radar in open space, up to and including perhaps brown dwarfs. Brown dwarfs are another type of heavenly beast that had been mooted back in the day (the 1980s) as being the source of dark matter.
Is ordinary matter finally making a comeback? Back when I was a teenager I found it highly puzzling that we were so damned sure that ordinary matter only comprised something like 5% of the mass of the universe. It would be wonderful to see the dark matter phantom dispelled by plain old ordinary matter, after all, and not by some magically invisible exotic particle that exists nowhere outside the imaginations of mathematical physicists.
Of course, not long ago neutrinos were thought to be massless.