What If Dark Matter Is Just Black Holes?
PBS Space TimeCited 6× on HN, 2022-2025
988K views · 5 years ago · explainer · evergreen
PBS Space Time asks whether dark matter could be made of primordial black holes. It walks through the observational constraints that limit this idea.
HN people link it in dark matter and black hole threads as a clear summary of why black holes alone are unlikely to explain dark matter.
13:01Could The Universe Be Inside A Black Hole?
PBS Space Time
3.4M views • 4 years ago
16:29Are Black Holes Actually Fuzzballs?
PBS Space Time
1.3M views • 4 years ago
12:06Hawking Radiation
PBS Space Time
1.3M views • 8 years ago
14:25Do Events Inside Black Holes Happen?
PBS Space Time
3.2M views • 11 years ago
18:24The Holographic Universe Explained
PBS Space Time
3.5M views • 7 years ago
15:29How Time Becomes Space Inside a Black Hole | Space Time
PBS Space Time
2.5M views • 9 years ago
18:54The NEW Warp Drive Possibilities
PBS Space Time
2.8M views • 5 years ago
19:59What Happens at the Event Horizon? | Space Time | PBS Digital Studios
PBS Space Time
3.2M views • 9 years ago
15:48How to Detect Extra Dimensions
PBS Space Time
1.6M views • 8 years ago
8:55Are Space and Time An Illusion?
PBS Space Time
3.3M views • 11 years ago
11:51Does Time Cause Gravity?
PBS Space Time
3M views • 5 years ago
18:05The Crisis in Cosmology
PBS Space Time
1.1M views • 7 years ago
16:07The Geometry of Causality
PBS Space Time
1.8M views • 9 years ago
13:43Why Quantum Information is Never Destroyed
PBS Space Time
715K views • 8 years ago
43:48dark matter is not a theory
Angela Collier
750K views • 3 years ago
21:15The REAL Possibility of Mapping Alien Planets!
PBS Space Time
778K views • 4 years ago
13:34Did Time Start at the Big Bang?
PBS Space Time
2.5M views • 7 years ago
1:47:54Leonard Susskind | "ER = EPR" or "What's Behind the Horizons of Black Holes?" - 1 of 2
Stanford Institute for Theoretical Physics
986K views • 12 years ago
1:00:28that dark matter video aged like milk
Angela Collier
404K views • 2 years ago
11:44This Black Hole Could be Bigger Than The Universe
Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell
9.6M views • 2 years ago
6 comments from Hacker News
This PBS Spacetime video pours some cold water on the black holes as dark matter hypothesis: ▶ this video It’s 4 years old; I don’t know if this JWST finding changes anything. I do know we have finally found some (one?) intermediate-mass black holes in the interim, but I don’t know if that changes it either. The possibility it leaves open for “Planck relics” is interestingly exotic
That was my first thought too. A cursory search indicates we would see a lot more gravitational lensing in our observations if that was the case. Found a couple of videos on it too ▶ this video link
(sorry only available on youtube, they no longer seem to mirror on pbs.org ) If you aren't familiar with Matt, yes he is at least 50% Neanderthal but also brilliant, lol btw I owe @api an apology, apparently black holes could indeed be dark matter, I missed this one from Matt a few years ago (or forgot the lesson) ▶ this video (actually by the end of that video Matt demonstrates point by point that there aren't enough black holes to be dark matter for several reasons/types, their mass doesn't add up enough, there would have to be more micro-sized black holes than all the stars in the universe and we'd be observing some really strange behaviors if that was the case, like disappearing neutron stars - just a few edge cases are left)
This was covered by PBS spacetime: ▶ this video Still possible, but increasingly unlikely due to the narrowing size range in which these black holes are allowed to exist in.
Got it. The reference is great, the only final addendum I wanted to mention was whether a neutron stars densities would stop a black hole in its tracks since the paper only talks about the black hole already having been there. (At least to remove the amateur recollection of mine from the reference link, the mention of this possibility happens in the video at 6:18 ▶ this video ) and here’s them talking about a BH punching through earth which seems roughly in line with what you say as well! link
When you dive into it, there are problems with this theory. PBS SpaceTime did pretty good coverage of it[0]. Each non-dark matter theory (i.e. MOND, primordial blackholes effort) usually has some pretty large glaring issue that's unsolvable. I'm all game to refute dark-matter but still waiting for the contender that fits the observations[1]. [0] ▶ this video [1] link