Black Holes and Universe Expansion

Do black holes cause vibrations in the fabric of space/time and that is what's driving the galaxies away from each other?
- Chris Heald (age 42)
Salem, OR, USA

Black holes orbiting each other do send out ripples in spacetime, as the recent LIGO results showed. That barely detectable effect plays essentially no role in the expansion of the universe. Most of that expansion is just left from the early Big Bang event. We aren't sure what's driving the current increase in the expansion rate. We usually call the source of that increase Dark Energy, but we know almost nothing about it except that it hasn't changed much in the last few billion years.

Mike W.

(published on 03/02/2016)