"black mass" most common in universe?

Question

I just read this phrase in the Belgian magazine "Knack": "In 2006 the first observation was made of two collapsing solar systems big enough to create the black mass of which most of our universe consists."

I suspect that two stars that are trapped in each others gravity would collapse and make a black hole. But is most of the mass in our universe this 'black mass'?

I also remember reading about the volume of a black hole shrinking, even under the circle of singularity. To me, that sounds like there is no more mass left then. Or is there? Can anyone explain please? :P thx

Answer 1

I am not knowledgeable about this at all, but I think what you mean by "black mass" is what scientists call dark matter. This is the matter in the universer that scientists cannot see or measure but have agreed that exists (they can detect their gravitational effects). Dark matter consists of something like 96% of all matter in the universe (please don't quote me on this number!). By the way, I don't think black holes are considered dark matter, since they can account for it. (Somebody correct me on this!) There is dark matter that is all around us and it envelops our galaxy like a gigantic halo. It's like everything in the galaxy is embeded in this dark matter like colored swirls in a marble.

Remember, mass in the universe is not set. Mass and energy can be converted into one another. (E=mc^2)

It turns out that when they consider all the dark and normal matter in the universe, they calculate that universe should eventually collapse on itself form its own gravity... but that is not happening. Universe is expanding... faster. Some very smart people figured out that there is energy that was unaccounted for. They call it dark energy. This is the energy that repelling galaxies apart form each other.

When they compare the amount of energy and matter in the universe, it's something like 70% dark energy and 30% dark matter (and tiny tiny amount of normal matter that make up thinkgs we can detect... like atoms)-- again, these numbers are ball park! I'm really bad with numbers.

The crazy thing is, scientists have absolutely NO idea what in the world this dark matter and dark energy is. They're not even made up of things like protons and electrons or electromagnetic waves.

Sorry, I didn't really answer your question, did I?
Any astronomers out there who can answer the original question better? And while you're at it, please enlighten us on dark matter and dark energy. Its absolutely fascinating!

Answer 2

Ms. Kato, I believe you nailed it exactly. Your explanation was perfect.

The only thing I'd add is to explain the question about shrinking black holes.

Stephen Hawking theorized that it was possible for thermal radiation to be emitted from black holes due to quantum effects. This radiation is called Hawking radiation. Black holes would lose mass because of this radiation, and given enough time a black hole will completely evaporate because of it. Of course, this would only happen if nothing else was falling into the black hole to replenish the lost mass.

Nobody has seen a black hole evaporate yet, so this theory is still unproven.

Answer 3

"Black mass" is sometimes called dark matter. Dark matter makes up at least 90 percent of the universe.The two main hypothetical candidates for this material are WIMPs (weakly interacting massive particles) and MACHOs (massive compact halo objects.WIMPs are somewhat heavier than neutrons but, as their name implies, they interact weakly with normal matter.MACHOs are huge, undetected populations of brown dwarfs(stars too small to shine), white dwarfs(faint stellar remnants), and black holes.