| |
 |
|
| Science Forum Index » Nonlinear Science Forum » The "Dragon" Begins To Show Itself?... |
|
Page 1 of 1 |
|
| Author |
Message |
| Knecht... |
 Posted: Thu Jan 08, 2009 7:48 am |
|
|
|
Guest
|
A remarkable discovery with potentially paradigm-shifting
implications has just been formally announced.
See: New York Times article by Dennis Overbye
at www.nytimes.com/2009/01/08/science/space/08star.html
Scientific paper available (free) at www.arxiv.org :
"Interpretation of the Extragalactic Radio Background" arXiv:
0901.0559v1 by Seiffert et al.
In a nutshell, a large excess of radio emission in a previously
incompletely sampled region of the radio spectrum indicates the
possible existence of an enormous population of stellar-mass black
holes.
(1) One of the authors (Kogut) has speculated that these black holes
might be the remnants of the "first stars" in the early universe.
(2) Another possibility is that all galaxies have vast dark matter
haloes composed of stellar-mass black holes, as predicted long ago
(Astrophysical Journal 322, 34-36, 1987). These stellar-mass dark
matter black holes would emit low levels of very high energy gamma
rays. Moreover, because they posess strong magnetic fields, they
would also emit significant levels of radio emission.
Both of these possible explanations invoke large populations of
stellar-mass black holes.
Further observations that elucidate the distribution of this excess
radio emission will help to tell us whether the proposed stellar-mass
black holes are the correct explanation, and if so, whether they are
solely the product of the early universe, or whether they are the
dominant dark matter component of the universe both then and now.
Yours in science
Knecht
www.amherst.edu/~rloldershaw |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
|
All times are GMT - 5 Hours
The time now is Mon Nov 23, 2009 8:14 am
|
|