How Black Holes Spread Missing Ordinary Matter Across the Universe

Published on: October 7, 2025in

Baryonic matter includes particles such as protons and neutrons

The Mystery of Missing Matter

Most of the universe is made up of dark matter, but there is also a large amount of baryonic matter, which is ordinary matter like gas and stars. However, many scientists noticed that a portion of this baryonic matter seemed to be missing for a long time. Recent research led by Boryana Hadzhiyska at the University of California, Berkeley, showed that this missing matter might actually be spread out far more than we thought. They revealed that supermassive black holes could be playing an important role in redistributing this matter across the universe. New theories suggest that as black holes spread their influence, they could account for much of the missing matter.

What Is Baryonic Matter?

Baryonic matter includes particles such as protons and neutrons—the building blocks of atoms. Most baryons are found in stars or gas, but the majority exists as diffuse gas, which is very faint and hard to detect with telescopes. Researchers connected various observations to track down this elusive gas floating between galaxies.

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The Role of Cosmic Clues

The team combined data showing how baryonic matter interacts with the cosmic microwave background (the afterglow from the Big Bang). By seeing how gravity distorts this afterglow around massive objects, they figured out where dark matter and baryonic matter cluster together and where they separate in space.

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Black Holes as Powerful Matter Movers

The surprising discovery was that baryonic matter is spread out much more widely than dark matter suggests. This spreading implies that supermassive black holes at galaxy centers might be ejecting gas violently into space. These powerful blasts can push ordinary matter away from their galaxies, making it difficult to locate.

Why This Matters for Science

This new perspective helps explain why earlier studies couldn’t find all the baryonic matter predicted by cosmologists. It also provides fresh insights into how galaxies evolve over time because moving gas affects star formation and galaxy growth.

The Future of Cosmic Research

Scientists are planning to include even more astronomical observations, such as tracking radio waves through diffuse gas clouds. These studies will give us an even clearer “baryon census” to reduce uncertainties about where ordinary matter goes in the cosmos.

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