Posted on 03/27/2015 8:14:51 PM PDT by BenLurkin
A new study published Thursday in Science suggests that dark matter might be able to zip through the universe without slowing or dragging because particles of it don't even interact with each other.
Based on what we can observe about the universe, galaxies should be tearing themselves apart. That's where so-called dark matter comes in: It's a term for the as-of-yet unobserved matter that must be bulking up cosmos, giving galaxies the gravity they need to spin at the rates they do without falling to pieces. But even though we haven't caught dark matter (so named because it doesn't interact with light the way normal matter does -- noT absorbing or reflecting it -- though it does bend light with a weird lensing effect) in a straightforward observation, scientists can learn ab0ut it based on the effects it has on more typical, observable forms of matter.
...
"If you bang your head against the wall, the electrostatic force between the molecules in your head and the ones in the wall cause a collision. This is what dark matter doesn't seem to feel," ...
Tom Kitching poo-poo'ed the "darkness" of dark matter:
Sometimes I think dark matter is a terrible name. It was originally coined because the phenomenon does not emit or absorb light. But light is everywhere in the dark matter we have observed, passing within it and around it. Indeed, the lensing effect that we employed in our study uses the light from distant galaxies that has passed through dark matter.
So perhaps "transparent matter" or "clear matter" are better names. My favourite alternative is "materia incognita" (the unknown material). Maps used to be labelled "terra incognita" in areas that were unknown, and in a similar way we could be explicit about the unknown nature of this phenomenon.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
perhaps it will at some point...open up a whole slew of job opportunies....for...ISIS..and Obie can save the world!!
I don’t think the science is settled.
Are gays a wave, or a particle?
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Wavicles!
Just as all the whackos were having such a good time, you had to come in with a sensible post.
Thank you very much.
I hear chattering of shattering
a smattering of mattering.
But the mattering’s black
And it’s on the attack
And its enemies are scattering.
Perfect comment
Please pit this into a perspective I can relate to like furlongs...............
That’s De-Creamed Matter now.
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