Couldn't the 'missing mass' in the Milky Way attributed to dark matter just be due to the black hole in the center of the galaxy?

No, because all indications are that the mass of any central black hole in the Milky Way is less than 2 million times the mass of the Sun. The amount of proposed dark matter in the Milky Way indicated by the dynamics of stars in the solar vicinity could be as large as 50 percent of the mass of the stellar component of the Milky Way or some 100 billion times the mass of the Sun. The dynamics of the center of our Milky Way make it impossible for such a mass to be there as a black hole, even though, such a black hole would only be 50 times bigger than our solar system!


Copyright 1997 Dr. Sten Odenwald
Return to Ask the Astronomer.