Splung.com Physics Forum

[wrosquist]

Is it possible that the mysterious dark matter that is unaccounted for in the universe could be hidden in the realm of black holes?

[hepcj]

Black holes are singularities in space-time. They form when a star of great enough mass (more than 5 solar masses) has reached the end of its life and cannot resist the attractive force of gravity. Given that the star was made of baryonic matter before it collapsed to form a black hole it is difficult to see how dark matter could be involved.
Dark matter is inferrered to exist because there is not enough visible matter to account for the rotational speed galaxies or to hold clusters of galaxies together. In fact, it is believed that only around 4-5% of the universe is matter is the stuff that we can explain.
It is possible that a small proportion of dark matter is dark-baryonic matter. This is stuff like black holes that does not emit radiation that can be detected. The most widely excepted explanation is that dark matter is formed from particles that have not yet been discovered and do not interact with baryonic matter, a bit like neutrinos that will eventually fit into the standard model. Experiments as are trying to detect the existence of dark matter particles, but so far the results are inconclusive.