Dark energy—the hypothetical force accelerating our universe’s expansion—sometimes raises more questions than it answers. A new study, however, presents surprising evidence that black holes may be an incubator for dark energy—suggesting that the force may be less constant than we believed.

In a paper published August 21 in Physical Review Letters , researchers used data from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) to test a hypothesis that argues black holes convert dead star matter into dark energy. This theory, called the cosmologically coupled black hole (CCBH) hypothesis, implies that dark energy didn’t spontaneously emerge. Rather, dark energy is an organic byproduct of the cosmic circle of life, accumulating over time as stars formed and died following the

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