Quantum effects stop black holes from forming from high concentrations of intense light, physicists say

Credit: NASA For the past seven decades, astrophysicists have theorized the existence of “kugelblitze,” black holes caused by extremely high concentrations of light. These particular black holes, they speculated, could be related to astronomical phenomena such as dark matter, and have even been suggested as the power source of hypothetical spacecraft engines in the distant … Read more

New research challenges black holes as an explanation for dark matter

Artist’s impression of a microlensing event caused by a black hole observed from Earth toward the Large Magellanic Cloud. Light from a background star located in the LMC is bent by a putative primordial black hole (lens) in the galactic halo and magnified when observed from Earth. Microlensing causes very characteristic variation in the brightness … Read more