--- title: "All the Missing Dark Energy Hiding in Black Holes, Scientists Say" description: "A radical series of new studies suggests that dark energy may be contained in black holes, which they found increased in mass as the universe expanded." date: "2023-02-17" modified: "2023-02-17" authors: - name: "Frank Landymore" job_title: "Contributing Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/flandymore" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/dark-energy-hiding-in-black-holes" categories: - "Astrophysics" - "Black Holes" - "Energy" - "Science & Energy" - "Space" tags: - "Black holes" - "dark energy" - "the digest" --- # All the Missing Dark Energy Hiding in Black Holes, Scientists Say ![A radical series of new studies suggests that dark energy may be contained in black holes, which they found increased in mass as the universe expanded.]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* ## At Its Core Dark energy, hypothesized to permeate the universe and affect it at the grandest scale, has remained deeply mysterious — down to basic details like where it resides. Now, new research makes a bold claim: it may be hiding out in black holes. The prevailing theory maintained by physicists is that dark energy is distributed evenly across the cosmos and is responsible for the accelerating expansion of the universe. But the findings of two new studies, published this month in [*The Astrophysical Journal* ]()and [*The Astrophysical Journal Letters*](), suggest that it may be concentrated in supermassive black holes at the center of galaxies. "This is a really surprising result," said co-author Dave Clements, a physicist from Imperial College London, in a [press release](). "We started off looking at how black holes grow over time, and may have found the answer to one of the biggest problems in cosmology." ## Coupling of Ideas The researchers first observed the masses of supermassive black holes in younger and denser galaxies and compared them to the masses of such black holes in dormant galaxies where, in contrast, there's little material left to be devoured. Since it's believed that black holes can only grow larger by merging with another one or consuming matter, a black hole in an empty stretch of space shouldn't get much larger, if at all. But surprisingly, they discovered that the black holes in dormant galaxies are actually between 7 and 20 times larger than they were nine billion years ago. From additional measurements taken of related galaxies across the evolution of the universe, the researchers believe the masses of these black holes increased as the universe grew. In other words, the masses of black holes are "cosmologically coupled" with the expansion of the universe, they claim. If true, that would suggest that dark energy may be contained in the cores of black holes. "The importance of this work is that it's taken the theories about black holes with dark energy cores and linked them for the first time to tangible observations of the universe," study co-author Chris Pearson [told *The Guardian*](). ## Shadow of Doubt Of course, not everyone's convinced. "The relation this work investigates between black hole mass and universe expansion rate is somewhat naive... and not supported on fundamental principles," Vitor Cardoso, a physicist at the Niels Bohr Institute who was not involved in the study, told the *Guardian*, noting that study could simply demonstrate that black holes evolve differently today than they did billions of years ago. With the dearth of definitive explanations, though, it's at least worth entertaining. **More on the cosmos:** *[Aliens May Be Creating Black Holes to Store Quantum Information, Scientists Say]()* ## Author At Futurism, my work has often centered on bringing a sense of clarity and insight to complex topics ranging from the regulation of emerging technologies to the esoteric ideologies of Silicon Valley executives, while striving not to lose the poetic sense of awe inspired by often-obscure fields like astrophysics and quantum computing. I broke the story of CNET using AI to produce articles that turned out to be riddled with factual errors and plagiarism — a dam-breaking inflection point, as I've reported, that's inspired copycats and endless discourse while beguiling stakeholders ranging from tech giants to purveyors of spam around the web. My work at Futurism has been cited by publications including CBS News, the Los Angeles Times, Vice, Gizmodo, Engadget, the Verge, and Vanity Fair. I grew up in locales ranging from India to China, and now live in the exotic suburbs of Virginia. In my free time, I'm an avid reader of weird sci-fi literature, an aficionado of East Asian cinema, and, regrettably, a relapsed gamer. Allegedly, I’m working on a debut novel, currently untitled. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()