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Dark Matter Search Takes a Surprising Turn | NOVA | PBS

NOVA PBS Official | July 20, 2026



The search for dark matter may be taking a surprising turn.

Theoretical physicist Elba Alonso-Monsalve explains why the decades-long hunt for dark matter has led many physicists to a surprising candidate: primordial black holes. What are these mini black holes and how might they have formed? And could upcoming experiments help uncover evidence for one of the most radical ideas in modern cosmology?

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Black Holes, Primordial Black Holes, Mini Black Holes, Tiny Black Holes, PBH, PBHs, Elba Alonso-Monsalve, Dark Matter, Dark Matter Mystery, WIMPs, Axions

Written by NOVA PBS Official

Comments

This post currently has 41 comments.

  1. @jjt1881

    July 20, 2026 at 8:40 am

    The observations were biased and a recent paper casts doubts about the reliability of any data suggesting this was other than a variable star. Sorry for those who wanted Hawkins' elusive mini blackholes to be out there. This is not a corroboration of any of that.

  2. @ChaosFraktal

    July 20, 2026 at 8:40 am

    I mean everything is well explained and so on … but why does she sound like that's all a big comedy show or a big joke? A bit less of this artifical giggling please.

  3. @Gary-o4m7r

    July 20, 2026 at 8:40 am

    To Elba , Dark matter is NOT MPBH's Mini Priordial Black Holes , it is in fact is a new gauge group ie SU-4 and is made out of 48 types of possibilities of Dark quarks ie Duarks 2 main types with only 2 generations and not 3 generations as with Quarks , with their own commensurate set of Dark Gluons ie 8x Dluons and with no whatsoever Lepton group associations , hense why they are 1 trillion x denser than normal atomic chemical matter . MPBH Primordial Black Holes is a bullshit (Toro-Sheiser) theory , developed by people whom are clutching desperately at straws to explain what they can't explain though what demands answers to .SU-4 is 30% extra to current known fermionic matter , and is about 80% of all matter in the universe . So the current standard model needs badly updating as it is still rather primitive in its current form , especially so as it does NOTYET include ALL the Fundamental Universal Particles , ie 144 Fermions not 96 , and 21 Bosons NOT 13 .Tuesday 20 july 2026 10.00am .

  4. @theycallmejpj

    July 20, 2026 at 8:40 am

    It’s not black holes. If it were there would be significant affect on the light we see from galaxies.

    Depressingly the truth is likely that we still don’t fully understand gravity

  5. @troyboyd3100

    July 20, 2026 at 8:40 am

    Isn't a black hole, by definition: dark matter? Matter, with mass, that cannot be directly observed… We only know they are there because of their effects on regular (visible/observable) matter.

  6. @KenJoseph-s9p

    July 20, 2026 at 8:40 am

    Funny; That's exactly what I've said! Between the massive black hole in the center of the universe and the unknown amount in each Galaxy being the glue that holds it all together. The furthering distance between each Galaxy is Chaos setting in

  7. @DanKetchum007

    July 20, 2026 at 8:40 am

    I know I'm getting very old. Virtually everyone I see these days seems youngish to me. Nevertheless, it's almost impossible to believe she's old enough to have a PhD. She doesn't look old enough to work at a McDonald's.

  8. @johnl5525

    July 20, 2026 at 8:40 am

    I just wanted to say that I admire people like Elba, and at least I have the consolation of knowing that, since I’m a cook, I could feed her so she can keep studying the universe without interruptions.

  9. @runmarkrunheinrich

    July 20, 2026 at 8:40 am

    I've sorta guessed at this idea for a long time. Dark matter is very unsatisfactory – when scientists claimed most of the mass of the universe was stuff we hadn't ever detected or measured it sounds like curve fitting with a fudge factor you pulled out of your butt. The handy thing about small black holes is they wouldn't be readily directly observable and wouldn't occlude things behind them. The mass of black holes can span 20 orders of magnitude so why couldn't there be a bunch of little ones slowly decaying?

  10. @xxyyzz8464

    July 20, 2026 at 8:40 am

    Would have been nice to give Hawking and Carr some credit here. They made PBHs a rigorous theory in the 1970’s and argued they were an explanation for dark matter in the 1990’s quite vocally.

  11. @davevann9795

    July 20, 2026 at 8:40 am

    Effects of a PBH hitting the Earth depends on the size and Earth-relative speed of the PBH. Primordial black holes can have a mass ranging from a plank mass, to much greater than a solar mass.

    A PBH with solar mass or more, would be disruptive to the entire solar system as it passed through our solar system. Even worse if it passed near Earth, since it could eject Earth from our former solar system. If it hit Earth, the gravitational forces as it passed through the Earth would be highly destructive. If a 1 solar mass black hole at very high speed passed through the center of the Earth, the surface of the Earth farthest from the black hole path, would experience a gravity field of more than 300000g. This would reduce all animal and plant life to a thin organic smear, leaving tardigrades to rule the remains of the Earth. The rapidly changing direction of the gravity field would add to its destructive effect. Then include the effect of a 6km diameter event horizon blasting through the Earth with intense relativistic effects to an even larger diameter.

    On a smaller scale, an asteroid mass black hole would pass through the Earth without much effect. The strong spaghettifying gravity field would only be very close to the black hole. If the black hole had a mass of 10^10 kg, the gravitational pull of the black hole would drop to 1g (Earth surface gravity) at a distance of 0.8m from the black hole.

    A small asteroid-mass black hole's gravity field will disrupt the Earth's matter only within a small fraction of a meter along its path, as it passes through the Earth. The small size of the black hole will make it very difficult to accrete any matter from the Earth. Einstein once speculated that it may be statistically impossible for black holes to absorb matter, because of the many difficulties of getting matter to enter a black hole.

  12. @johndaleolsen

    July 20, 2026 at 8:40 am

    If we knew the answer to what would happen if a PBH hit Earth then we'd know how to confirm their existence, right? IE: Look at planets and moons for the telltale sign of PBH impacts. Unless I misunderstood what you were saying their mass is about the same as an asteroid and they're no larger than a grain of sand. That said, wouldn't one expect their impact to be about the same as an asteroid but with some unique differences in the crater size and shape?

  13. @jessicaheger1880

    July 20, 2026 at 8:40 am

    If it has the mass of an asteroid but the volume of a proton, the disturbance area would be small but long as there would not be much resistance. So it would make a hole to the center at least, but depending on velocity and angle of impact, may go through to the other side of the planet. Probable leave a trail of some kind in its wake, like lightning through sand makes glass.

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