Welcome To Dark Space Central.com!
This is an independent informational site covering dark items in space. We start with Black Holes as they are beyond speculation. Then we will cover Dark Matter and Dark Energy plus some related materials. Items presented here are in-depth, but in laymen's language. Technical jargon is explained.
Black Hole Basics
A black hole is a spherical region of space that is so incredibly dense that not even light can escape from its surface, hence the name. The gravitational force of a black hole is extremely strong because all of its matter is concentrated in a core at its center. There are two major types of black holes, Stellar (former stars) and Supermassive (centers of galaxies), plus a small number of Intermediate sized ones.
Black Holes In Depth
Around the edge of a super-massive black hole there is a huge ring of very dusty gas called a "Torus". The Torus is very dense and lumpy. If one is looking at a black hole edge-wise, all you can see is the Torus as it is so large it blocks the view of the actual black hole. One has to be located on quite an angle to see the black hole itself. The Torus prevents many black holes from being seen from earth.
Dark Matter Indicators
Dark matter is matter that neither emits nor scatters light or other electromagnetic radiation, and cannot be directly detected by electromagnetic sensors. The first person to provide evidence of the presence of dark matter was astro-physicist Fritz Zwicky, of Caltech in 1933. He found there was about 400 times more estimated mass than was observable in the Coma Cluster of Galaxies.
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Dark Matter Searches
A mile underground in South Dakota, the ultra-sensitive Large Underground Xenon experiment, or LUX, began searching for evidence of dark matter. On a very rare occasion, a dark matter particle might just collide with a normal matter atom. The trick is to catch that signal amid the storm of outer space particles bombarding the earth so thickly that hundreds pass through our bodies each second.
Dark Energy
Nothing comes close to the description of dark energy in the "Standard Model" of fundamental particles and forces developed by quantum physicists. Dark energy is a mysterious force. Dark energy has not yet been detected directly and has properties unlike anything we know. Dark energy is like an anti-gravity force, but since energy and mass are equivalent, there has to be a lot of it in the universe.