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Gravitational wave detectors pick up a low-frequency hum, like the sound of a distant waterfall. The Webb telescope finds galaxies in the early universe with black holes that seem too massive for such a young age.

If these invisible objects make up dark matter (as thought by Zwicky and Rubin), then every galaxy contains an uncountable number of them. Like pebbles in a stream, they are slowed by gas and stars, gradually sinking toward the center. There, clumping together, they produce waves that create the hum. Even a drop in the bucket, a mere fraction of a percent of the total mass, changes the tune, much like a handful of pebbles transforms a river’s sound. Calculations match years of observations by the NANOGrav project. Moreover, this model also explains the early giants: ordinary black holes, caught in this flow, grow rapidly. Thus, one simple idea connects three great cosmic mysteries.