Two studies published in a well-known astrophysics journal cite one bold theory: The accelerating expansion of the Universe is linked to the evolution of black holeswhich contain within them dark energythe nature of which has been sought for twenty years.

Astrophysics studies that cause an “earthquake” in the scientific community are rare. The two published last week on The Astrophysical Journal claim to have found an explanation for the great mystery of dark energy hovering here and twenty five years.

In 1998, it was discovered that the expansion of the Universe is accelerating – everything is moving away from everything at ever faster rates. This is difficult to explain – the gravitational pull between all objects in the Universe should slows down expansion.

To explain this, it has been suggested that a “dark energy” was responsible for her removal indeed she was stronger than gravity. This was connected to an idea he had Einstein but later rejected – a “cosmological constant” that opposed gravity and kept the Universe from collapsing.

This idea resurfaced with her discovery accelerated expansion of the Universe, with its main component a kind of energy included in space-time itself and called vacuum energy. This energy pushes the Universe further apart, accelerating the expansion.

Black holes posed a problem though – their extremely strong gravity is hard to resist, especially at their centers, where everything seems to collapse in a phenomenon called “uniqueness”.

The new research shows that black holes gain mass in a way that is consistent with what they contain vacuum energyproviding a source of dark energy and removing the need for them to form “singularities” in their center.