Gravitational Waves May Hold Dark Matter Secret

This past summer, the LIGO detectors observed the gravitational-wave signature of two 30-solar-mass black holes spiraling into each other. Such black holes could be abundant in the Universe, so abundant that they could be the missing dark matter. Simeon Bird and colleagues from Johns Hopkins University, Maryland, have explored this possibility by estimating the merger rate of 30-solar-mass black holes playing the role of dark matter. The results are consistent with the rate inferred from LIGO’s observations, but more data will be needed to convincingly connect black holes and dark matter.