Dark Matter Essay

Submitted By levwop
Words: 468
Pages: 2

Dark matter guides growth of supermassive black holes

Summary
This article is about a new study between elliptical galaxies dark matter and their black holes. Previous studies revealed a relationship between a black hole’s mass and the mass of all the stars in an elliptical galaxy. We know of dark matter because of its gravitational attraction by holding galaxies and galaxy clusters. The dark matter halo is in every galaxy and is as dense as a trillion suns. There was a study of over 3,000 elliptical galaxies where researchers used star movement to track and weigh the galaxies’ black hole. To weigh the dark matter, they took x-ray measurements of the hot gas surrounding the galaxies. Due to the dark matter weighing so much it molds new elliptical galaxies and the growth of its central black hole.
Relevance
This article is relevant to topics covered this week in the lecture and text book. It relates specifically to chapters 14 and 15 of the text book regarding black holes, elliptical galaxies, and dark matter. Black holes are very dense objects that nothing, not even light, can escape from its surface. Elliptical galaxies tend to have brighter stars than spiral galaxies. The Milky Way galaxy is a spiral galaxy with a bright core and spiral arms. Dark matter doesn’t react with electromagnetic radiation and makes its presence known only through its exertion of gravitational force. The text book states, “We now estimate that 90% of the mass of galaxies is composed of dark matter”.
Importance
Researchers are continuing to back the big bang theory. By studying these black holes and dark matter of galaxies they will have a better understanding. Although dark matter or black holes can’t be seen with telescopes we can observe them in other ways. For example,