Dr. Becky | Why Doesn’t Dark Matter Collapse Into Black Holes?

My Account

Mijn Account

Mon Compte

Mein Konto

我的帐户

Connexion

Anmeldung

Dr. Becky | Why Doesn’t Dark Matter Collapse Into Black Holes?

Why doesn’t dark matter collapse? Think about it, gravity pulls on it. There’s a huge amount of it; outweighing all the normal matter in the Universe.

So why doesn’t it form dark stars? Dark black holes? Or entire dark galaxies? Instead, it just sits there… in enormous, fuzzy clouds around galaxies. And that’s weird. Because normal matter doesn’t stay fuzzy, it collapses under its own gravity. It makes planets. It makes stars. It makes black holes.

And it was after my last video about whether the Milky Way’s centre could be a dark matter cloud instead of a supermassive black hole, many of you asked: "if the dark matter cloud has the same mass, why doesn’t it just collapse?"

So what is dark matter doing differently to normal matter...

Dr. Becky

astrophysicist

Dr. Becky | Why Doesn’t Dark Matter Collapse Into Black Holes?

Join the conversation 🎭

Fexl | Raw Images from Titan Reveal Something Unexpected

StarTalk | Do Colliding Pulsars Create All of the Universe’s Gold?

StarTalk | What Would Happen to Earth if Jupiter Stopped Rotating

We Thought Black Holes Ended in Singularities... But...

Fexl | Scientists Just Found New Evidence of Life on Enceladus

Fexl | New Data from Juno Shows Something Strange on Jupiter

Fexl | Real Images of Saturn Show That Something is Seriously Off

Astrum | We're Close to Harnessing the Power of a Star

We're Going Back to the Moon and Scientists aren't Happy About It

Beyond Nature | The Hidden Worlds Beyond Neptune

Astrum | Perseverance Just Heard an Unexpected Sound on Mars

Beeyond Ideas | The Hidden Dimensions Inside Black Holes

Venture City | Isaac Asimov: The Earth-Moon System

StarTalk | Why the Moon is Spiraling Away From Us

Is the Universe Expanding Faster than The Speed of Light?

Astrum | Could There Really Be Life on Enceladus?

StarTalk | The Missions Bringing Us Back to the Moon

Kosmo | What Was Discovered Beyond the Solar System?

Progress | The Moon: Our Gateway To The Universe

StarTalk | What Would Happen if the Moon Were 20 Times Closer?

StarTalk | How We’re Trying to Detect Dark Matter Particles

BBC News | Inside Artemis II and Humanity's Return to The Moon

Astrum | What NASA Found Below Jupiter's Clouds

The Space Race | What NASA Found Inside The Sun

History of the Universe | What Is Beyond The End?

Howtown | The Moon's Origin Story Doesn't Add Up

Astrum | What if an Antimatter Meteor Hit the Earth?

Insane Curiosity | Why No Human Will Ever Return From Saturn

The Space Race | Something Weird is Happening on Neptune