Is the Mass of Super-Massive Black Holes Factored into Dark Matter Calculations?

In summary, the conversation discusses the possibility of using the mass of super-massive black holes to account for the missing mass in the universe. However, it is mentioned that dark matter, not dark energy, is responsible for the expanding universe. The conversation also touches on the misconception that the mass of super-massive black holes is larger than the galaxy, and explains how the size of the central object does not affect the orbiting bodies. The conversation ends with a question about the limits of compressibility of matter, to which there is no clear answer.
  • #1
tanzanos
62
0
When it comes to dark matter; Has the mass of the super-massive black holes residing at the core of every galaxy been taken into consideration? Could the total mass of all black holes account for the missing mass in the universe?
 
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  • #2
Dark matter is responsible for the expanding universe, creating a cosmological constant that is greater than 1, meaning a cosmos that is expanding at an accelerated rate. If we just used the black holes mass as the extra mass of the universe, gravity would overcome the positive cosmological constant and start the big collapse
 
  • #3
tanzanos said:
When it comes to dark matter; Has the mass of the super-massive black holes residing at the core of every galaxy been taken into consideration? Could the total mass of all black holes account for the missing mass in the universe?

Yes it has, people aren't that stupid.

nickthrop101 said:
Dark matter is responsible for the expanding universe, creating a cosmological constant that is greater than 1, meaning a cosmos that is expanding at an accelerated rate. If we just used the black holes mass as the extra mass of the universe, gravity would overcome the positive cosmological constant and start the big collapse

Dark matter, not dark energy. They're different things.
 
  • #4
But if we consider one to be a condensed form of the other they may be responsible at different times in their existence to act out the same affect
 
  • #5
nickthrop101 said:
But if we consider one to be a condensed form of the other they may be responsible at different times in their existence to act out the same affect

They're completely different phenomena.
 
  • #6
About the supermassive black holes: There is other 'not very visible' matter in the universe like dwarf stars, neutron stars, ordinary gasses, black holes, etc which are called MACHOs. Evidence so far seems to say that these MACHOs couldn't possibly account for dark matter.

Also, dark matter and dark energy are two different things.

I think there is a misconception about how great the mass of a supermassive black hole is. Their mass is small, as compared to the total mass of the galaxy.
 
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  • #7
BruceW said:
I think there is a misconception about how great the mass of a supermassive black hole is. Their mass is small, as compared to the total mass of the galaxy.
How can this be if it is the supermassive black hole keeping the galaxy together and have a mass smaller than the galaxy?
 
  • #8
tanzanos said:
How can this be if it is the supermassive black hole keeping the galaxy together and have a mass smaller than the galaxy?

The galaxy is HUGE. Also, in any orbiting system, it actually doesn't matter much how big the central object is when it comes to how much can orbit around that central object. If you have a million solar mass black hole at the center of a galaxy, you could have 1 billion sollar masses worth of stuff orbiting it. As long as it's spread out, everything would still orbit around the one giant concentrated mass that is the super-massive black hole.

The sum of the masses of the planets in our solar system don't really compare to the mass of the Sun, but you can do the same thing with our solar system. You could scatter Jupiter sized planets all over the place and as long as they don't get clumped up or are very close to the Sun, you still could have everything orbiting the Sun.
 
  • #9
Pengwuino said:
The galaxy is HUGE. Also, in any orbiting system, it actually doesn't matter much how big the central object is when it comes to how much can orbit around that central object. If you have a million solar mass black hole at the center of a galaxy, you could have 1 billion sollar masses worth of stuff orbiting it. As long as it's spread out, everything would still orbit around the one giant concentrated mass that is the super-massive black hole.

The sum of the masses of the planets in our solar system don't really compare to the mass of the Sun, but you can do the same thing with our solar system. You could scatter Jupiter sized planets all over the place and as long as they don't get clumped up or are very close to the Sun, you still could have everything orbiting the Sun.
OK; Thanks.

Last Question: Is there a limit to how much matter can be compressed (like in black holes)?
 
  • #10
tanzanos said:
OK; Thanks.

Last Question: Is there a limit to how much matter can be compressed (like in black holes)?

I've never heard of such an upper limit to a mass of a black hole.
 
  • #11
Jack21222 said:
I've never heard of such an upper limit to a mass of a black hole.
I did not mean how much matter can be ingested but how much compression can matter accept!
 
  • #12
tanzanos said:
I did not mean how much matter can be ingested but how much compression can matter accept!

Infinite compression. Of course there could be a finite amount before matter turns into something else, but who knows.
 
  • #13
Drakkith said:
Infinite compression. Of course there could be a finite amount before matter turns into something else, but who knows.
Ah but that is a mystery worth looking into! If a black hole has no limit to the amount of matter it ingests and yet matter is compressed into a singularity at the core of a black hole then we have a problem:

Either matter is infinitely compressible or it ends up elsewhere; like into another universe! I mean theoretically a black hole can swallow whole galaxies.

Does anyone know the limits of compressibility of matter?
 
  • #14
tanzanos said:
Ah but that is a mystery worth looking into! If a black hole has no limit to the amount of matter it ingests and yet matter is compressed into a singularity at the core of a black hole then we have a problem:

Either matter is infinitely compressible or it ends up elsewhere; like into another universe! I mean theoretically a black hole can swallow whole galaxies.

Does anyone know the limits of compressibility of matter?

It really doesn't matter. We cannot detect anything past the event horizon, thus as far as we are concerned the "size" of the black hole is defined by its event horizon. The event horizon of a black hole is directly proportional to its mass. If a black hole swallows a mass equal to its own, its event horizon doubles in radius. This means that the volume enclosed by the BH more than doubles. If we take the mass of a black hole an divide it into this volume, we find that the effective density of the black hole goes down as it gets more massive.

To us, outside of the black hole, it does not matter if the mass stops compressing right after crossing the event horizon or continues on towards a singularity. All we can know is that it got larger and more massive.
 
  • #15
Janus said:
It really doesn't matter. We cannot detect anything past the event horizon, thus as far as we are concerned the "size" of the black hole is defined by its event horizon. The event horizon of a black hole is directly proportional to its mass. If a black hole swallows a mass equal to its own, its event horizon doubles in radius. This means that the volume enclosed by the BH more than doubles. If we take the mass of a black hole an divide it into this volume, we find that the effective density of the black hole goes down as it gets more massive.

To us, outside of the black hole, it does not matter if the mass stops compressing right after crossing the event horizon or continues on towards a singularity. All we can know is that it got larger and more massive.
OK now I understand. Thank you for clarifying. Now to ask yet one more relevant question: Since information cannot be destroyed then would I be correct in saying that all information stays at the event horizon? If this so then what is beyond the event horizon is basically nothing?
 
  • #16
tanzanos said:
How can this be if it is the supermassive black hole keeping the galaxy together and have a mass smaller than the galaxy?

I think that's the whole point: the supermassive black hole as well as everything else we see in the galaxy is NOT enough to keep the galaxy together. Something else must be providing the gravity to do so...
 
  • #17
tanzanos said:
Ah but that is a mystery worth looking into! If a black hole has no limit to the amount of matter it ingests and yet matter is compressed into a singularity at the core of a black hole then we have a problem:

Either matter is infinitely compressible or it ends up elsewhere; like into another universe! I mean theoretically a black hole can swallow whole galaxies.

Does anyone know the limits of compressibility of matter?

There is at least 1 effect that prevents the formation of singularities. As the matter compresses it causes greater and greater gravity. Gravity can be modeled as warped spacetime. The more intense the gravity, the more time slows down as compared to an outside observer. From our perspective, outside the black hole, the time needed for a star to collaps to a singularity would be infinite.

What you would observe as you fell into a black hole I don't know.
 
  • #18
mrspeedybob said:
There is at least 1 effect that prevents the formation of singularities. As the matter compresses it causes greater and greater gravity. Gravity can be modeled as warped spacetime. The more intense the gravity, the more time slows down as compared to an outside observer. From our perspective, outside the black hole, the time needed for a star to collaps to a singularity would be infinite.

What you would observe as you fell into a black hole I don't know.

I thought that issue had been taken care of by someone already?
 
  • #19
mrspeedybob said:
There is at least 1 effect that prevents the formation of singularities. As the matter compresses it causes greater and greater gravity. Gravity can be modeled as warped spacetime. The more intense the gravity, the more time slows down as compared to an outside observer. From our perspective, outside the black hole, the time needed for a star to collaps to a singularity would be infinite.

What you would observe as you fell into a black hole I don't know.
But does not mass require time in order to exist? If time at the core of a black hole is zero then mass cannot exist and thus not even a singularity can exist. Besides if the information remains at the event horizon then so too mass cannot exist even in an extremely compressed state.

How can non mass create such a gravitational effect that nothing can escape it?
 
  • #20
tanzanos said:
But does not mass require time in order to exist? If time at the core of a black hole is zero then mass cannot exist and thus not even a singularity can exist. Besides if the information remains at the event horizon then so too mass cannot exist even in an extremely compressed state.

How can non mass create such a gravitational effect that nothing can escape it?

Time only slows down for an observer in a frame of reference DIFFERENT from another frame. If you were to fall into a black hole (and survive) YOU would not experience any time dilation for yourself, ever.
 
  • #21
Various surveys of the Galactic Halo have set upper bounds of the percentage of galactic dark matter that can be found in black holes (and other compact objects):

OGLE: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2011MNRAS.413..493W
EROS 2: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2007A&A...469..387T
MACHO: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2000ApJ...542..281A

Generally speaking, all surveys say less than 10% of dark matter can be found in black holes/compact objects (ranging in mass from 0.0001 to 100 solar masses generally.)

Janus said:
It really doesn't matter. We cannot detect anything past the event horizon, thus as far as we are concerned the "size" of the black hole is defined by its event horizon. The event horizon of a black hole is directly proportional to its mass. If a black hole swallows a mass equal to its own, its event horizon doubles in radius. This means that the volume enclosed by the BH more than doubles. If we take the mass of a black hole an divide it into this volume, we find that the effective density of the black hole goes down as it gets more massive.

To us, outside of the black hole, it does not matter if the mass stops compressing right after crossing the event horizon or continues on towards a singularity. All we can know is that it got larger and more massive.

Assuming, of course, that the Cosmic Censorship Conjecture is correct (which is increasing shaky).
 
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  • #22
mrspeedybob said:
There is at least 1 effect that prevents the formation of singularities. As the matter compresses it causes greater and greater gravity. Gravity can be modeled as warped spacetime. The more intense the gravity, the more time slows down as compared to an outside observer. From our perspective, outside the black hole, the time needed for a star to collaps to a singularity would be infinite.

What you would observe as you fell into a black hole I don't know.

So, if we were to observe a black hole from the outside, would it be possible that we could see an echo of some sort representing the things that have "fallen" in?

If i were to fall into a black hole, would my image be preserved for all eternity, seeing as it would take an infinite amount of time for me to collaps?

(spelling may be of, since English is not my first language.)
 
  • #23
Please tell me if I am wrong about it.....since now reading about a black hole i could have a perception that a black hole nothing other than a star who has got its plasma cooled down and thus created a surface and due to high density it has a very large magnitude of gravitational pull which creates a escape velocity which is even greater than the speed of light...so when anything which is pulled inside a black hole must hit a ground but due to the immense gravitational pull all the subatomic partices gets distorted and hence lead to the body of that object converts into singularity....
 
  • #24
A 'singularity' is another way of saying we don't know. We already know that GR and QT do not play well together at Planck scales.
 
  • #25
cueball B said:
So, if we were to observe a black hole from the outside, would it be possible that we could see an echo of some sort representing the things that have "fallen" in?

If i were to fall into a black hole, would my image be preserved for all eternity, seeing as it would take an infinite amount of time for me to collaps?

(spelling may be of, since English is not my first language.)
Information cannot be destroyed and it is suspected that all information remains at the event horizon. I suspect that the answer will come from CERN within the next decade.
 
  • #26
Can anyone please tell me something about black hole

Since supermassive black hole has a gravitational pull low in magnitude outside event horizon then what ever matters present there might get compressed and radiate which could be the light spectrum fo black hole...is it possible?:confused:
 
  • #27
Chronos said:
A 'singularity' is another way of saying we don't know. We already know that GR and QT do not play well together at Planck scales.
Forgive me for asking but how do you conclude we know that?
 
  • #28
Passionflower said:
Forgive me for asking but how do you conclude we know that?

The incompatibility of GR with QM is one of the outstanding problems of our time. Two theories, both in their own rights, the most successfully-tested theories ever devised, are not compatible. To try to combine them, particularly when it comes to gravity at small scales, produces nonsensical results (infinities).
 
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  • #29
vinayjain said:
Can anyone please tell me something about black hole

Since supermassive black hole has a gravitational pull low in magnitude outside event horizon then what ever matters present there might get compressed and radiate which could be the light spectrum fo black hole...is it possible?:confused:

Low in magnitude? Not sure what you mean by that. Also, the accretion disk around the black hole most definitely radiates, however that is not what is referred to by hawking radiation if that is what you meant.
 
  • #30
Drakkith said:
Low in magnitude? Not sure what you mean by that. Also, the accretion disk around the black hole most definitely radiates, however that is not what is referred to by hawking radiation if that is what you meant.

no actually i m not talking bout accretion disk but the matters which are present near event horizon in a SMBH they will also radiate due to compression and thus they might also get radiated....
 
  • #31
vinayjain said:
no actually i m not talking bout accretion disk but the matters which are present near event horizon in a SMBH they will also radiate due to compression and thus they might also get radiated....

I believe that matter is also considered part of the accretion disc. Until it falls inside the event horizon I think it's still part of the disc.
 
  • #32
DaveC426913 said:
The incompatibility of GR with QM is one of the outstanding problems of our time. Two theories, both in their own rights, the most successfully-tested theories ever devised, are not compatible. To try to combine them, particularly when it comes to gravity at small scales, produces nonsensical results (infinities).
Producing infinities is nothing unusual in quantum theory, and mathematical methods have been devised to get rid of them.

So I think that does not exclude the possibility that we have not devised a mathematical method to get rid of those infinities if we try to combine GR and QM.
 
  • #33
mrspeedybob said:
The more intense the gravity, the more time slows down as compared to an outside observer. From our perspective, outside the black hole, the time needed for a star to collaps to a singularity would be infinite.

Time doesn't slow down. One way of thinking about what happens is that the pulses that you send out are Doppler shifted so that people at a far distance see the pulses arriving at further and further intervals.

What you would observe as you fell into a black hole I don't know.

Assuming it's large enough so that tidal forces don't matter, you wouldn't notice anything unusual.
 
  • #34
Passionflower said:
Producing infinities is nothing unusual in quantum theory, and mathematical methods have been devised to get rid of them.

And those methods totally fall apart when you do gravity.

The problem is that the way that you deal with infinities in QM is to basically expand things out into a power series. At each stage, as you add more terms, you rescale (i.e. renormalize) so that when you do the infinite series you end up with finite values.

(Actually, you sort of cheat, and figure out that all you need are the first few terms, and you sweep the rest under the rug.)

This doesn't work with gravity. The problem is that gravity produces gravity. If you work with EM and imagine two electrons exchanging a photon, there is a tiny correction as that photon generates more photons, but it's small enough so that you can sweep under the rug.

With gravity, this doesn't work, because gravity generates gravity which generates more gravity which generates more gravity, and soon you have infinities popping up all over the place.

This is a terribly oversimplified version of what happens, and corrections are appreciated if I got something wrong.

So I think that does not exclude the possibility that we have not devised a mathematical method to get rid of those infinities if we try to combine GR and QM.

Most people think that no such method exists, and the reason we have all sorts of infinities while the world works is that some point in the real world you can chop off the power series because the rules change.
 
  • #35
twofish-quant said:
Assuming it's large enough so that tidal forces don't matter, you wouldn't notice anything unusual.
Would we see the light of the stars behind the black hole? And if so what would the redshift show the closer we get to the singularity?
 
<h2>1. What is a super-massive black hole?</h2><p>A super-massive black hole is a type of black hole that is found at the center of most galaxies. It is extremely massive, with a mass that is equivalent to millions or even billions of times the mass of our sun.</p><h2>2. How are super-massive black holes related to dark matter?</h2><p>Super-massive black holes are not directly related to dark matter. However, they are often found in the centers of galaxies, where dark matter is also concentrated. This can make it difficult to distinguish between the effects of super-massive black holes and dark matter in observations and calculations.</p><h2>3. How is the mass of a super-massive black hole determined?</h2><p>The mass of a super-massive black hole is determined through various methods, such as observing the movement of stars and gas around it, or measuring the gravitational lensing effect it has on light passing by. These measurements are then used to calculate the mass of the black hole.</p><h2>4. Is the mass of super-massive black holes factored into dark matter calculations?</h2><p>No, the mass of super-massive black holes is not factored into dark matter calculations. Dark matter is a type of matter that does not interact with light, and its mass is estimated through its gravitational effects on visible matter. The mass of super-massive black holes is not considered as part of this calculation.</p><h2>5. How do super-massive black holes affect dark matter calculations?</h2><p>Super-massive black holes can affect dark matter calculations in two ways. First, their gravitational pull can influence the movement of stars and gas, which can make it difficult to accurately measure the mass of dark matter. Second, their presence can also affect the overall structure and dynamics of galaxies, which can also impact dark matter calculations.</p>

1. What is a super-massive black hole?

A super-massive black hole is a type of black hole that is found at the center of most galaxies. It is extremely massive, with a mass that is equivalent to millions or even billions of times the mass of our sun.

2. How are super-massive black holes related to dark matter?

Super-massive black holes are not directly related to dark matter. However, they are often found in the centers of galaxies, where dark matter is also concentrated. This can make it difficult to distinguish between the effects of super-massive black holes and dark matter in observations and calculations.

3. How is the mass of a super-massive black hole determined?

The mass of a super-massive black hole is determined through various methods, such as observing the movement of stars and gas around it, or measuring the gravitational lensing effect it has on light passing by. These measurements are then used to calculate the mass of the black hole.

4. Is the mass of super-massive black holes factored into dark matter calculations?

No, the mass of super-massive black holes is not factored into dark matter calculations. Dark matter is a type of matter that does not interact with light, and its mass is estimated through its gravitational effects on visible matter. The mass of super-massive black holes is not considered as part of this calculation.

5. How do super-massive black holes affect dark matter calculations?

Super-massive black holes can affect dark matter calculations in two ways. First, their gravitational pull can influence the movement of stars and gas, which can make it difficult to accurately measure the mass of dark matter. Second, their presence can also affect the overall structure and dynamics of galaxies, which can also impact dark matter calculations.

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