Posted on 03/12/2015 10:32:02 AM PDT by BenLurkin
Now, you might be saying, if we don’t know what this thing is, and we can’t detect it. How do we know it’s actually there? Isn’t it probably not there, like dragons? How do we know dark matter actually exists, when we have no idea what it actually is?
Oh, it’s there. In fact, pretty much all we know is that it does exist. Dark matter was first theorized back in the 1930s by Fritz Zwicky to account for the movement of galaxy clusters, but the modern calculations were made by Vera Rubin in the 1960s and 70s. She calculated that galaxies were spinning more quickly than they should.
... But in the last few years, astronomers have gotten better and better at detecting dark matter, purely though the effect of its gravity on the path that light takes as it crosses the Universe. As light travels through a region of dark matter, its path gets distorted by gravity. Instead of taking a straight line, the light is bent back and forth depending on how much dark matter is passes through.
And here’s the amazing part. Astronomers can then map out regions of dark matter in the sky just by looking at the distortions in the light, and then working backwards to figure out how much intervening dark matter would need to be there to cause it.
(Excerpt) Read more at universetoday.com ...
I think “Dark matter” is a fudge factor to describe a property of gravity that we haven’t figured out yet.
Forget that these equations are based on a construct created out whole cloth...the science is settled...is it not?
I have a very limited understanding of any of it — but I think GraceG is on to something in her post up thread.
See the thread below about the defecating bandit in Akron.
Saw that.
People are nuts!
Something that clearly exists because we can observe its effect but as you say it may just be an extension of a physical property we don’t understand yet.
Could very well be. I have more confidence in that explanation than any pronouncements couched in absolute language by scientists being tasked (and paid) to prove its existence.
Thanks BenLurkin.
It doesn’t absorb energy or radiate it. That makes it impossible to detect.
They talk about it because their beloved equations allow it. They won’t ask instead if their equations are wrong.
It doesn’t absorb energy or radiate it. That makes it impossible to detect.
They talk about it because their beloved equations allow it. They won’t ask instead if their equations are wrong.
Agreed. It is a term used to describe the fact that classic cosmological models don't conform to the observable data. (same with "dark energy")
Where to start.
How do we know the light is distorted?
If we know it’s distorted, how do we know it’s because of dark matter?
How do we know the level of distortion?
How do we know we’re interpreting the level of distortion correctly?
Pluto is still a planet. Most of the rest is just garbage.
Okay are you all familiar with the “Rubber Sheet and heavy steel ball” model they always use to describe “how gravity works”....
You stretch out a rubber sheet and put several metal ball bearings on it and they create “dents” in it, much like planets do to space time.
One thing they forget to take in effect is the matter on the “other side” of the sheet.
Take the rubber sheet and stretch it over a kiddie pool filled with a non-compressable medium like say water.
Then put the steel balls in it and observer what happens...
They make the same dents but at a distance it causes the sheet to move upwards (negative energy), because of this upwards lifting of the sheet itself to compensate for the dents the “gravity” becomes stronger at certain closer distances (dark matter) than that of the old model.
Now put this 2-D model in 3 dimensions....
That is how Gravity works, I suspect there is an underlying “uncompressable” space time metric that lies “under” the normal fabric of space time.
There is definitely something. I was watching a show about galactic structures, superstructures, and strands that. It really does seem clear that there is an unknown something that forms a framework for our universe.
I suspect that as well. What's the grant money advantage of dark matter over incomplete understanding of gravity's normal characteristics?
The call it ‘dark’ because its the color of fudge. As in ‘fudge factor’.
Can’t see it, can’t detect it, but the universe isn’t behaving the way it should, gravimetrically. Let’s call it ‘dark matter’.
With a speculum and a flashlight, however, we can detect it.
I suspect you may be onto something, and I have also suspected that dark matter is just a crutch.
I propose we call it the firmament. I just made that up.
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