Posted on 07/21/2016 10:47:42 AM PDT by Phlap
In an announcement earlier today, the LUX Collaboration — running the Large Underground Xenon experiment — performed the longest, deepest, most sensitive search for dark matter ever, using 370 kilograms of liquid xenon with the detector running for a total of 20 months. The final result? Not a single dark matter collision was observed.
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
Well, we can’t “see” quarks either, they have never been isolated or directly observed. But there is considerable evidence that they actually exist. It seems possible to me that some things in nature are seen, not directly, but only in their effects.
Hmm, I wouldn’t call it tension, but empty space should have a sort of negative pressure. That’s pretty much what the law of entropy is about, energy gravitates to areas with lower energy density, so if an area is devoid of matter and energy, energy would tend to migrate there.
That’s a long way from saying empty space creates matter though.
“Either the laws of gravity as currently understood are wrong, or there is something out there.”
Yes, but that “something” doesn’t necessarily have to be dark matter. Another force affecting the motion of galaxies in addition to gravity would be a much simpler solution than “smart matter” that somehow magically knew where it needed to be in every galaxy in order to make our equations work.
Yes, you’ve got the gist of it. The stars along a “spoke” from the center rotate such that their relative angles stay the same, even though that means the outer stars must revolve around the galactic center much faster than the inner stars, which is contrary to the standard laws of gravity.
So, either something besides gravity is driving their motion, or our understanding of gravity is flawed, or we do not know all the components of the gravitational system in a galaxy. Dark matter is choosing the third choice, scientists are assuming that nothing besides gravity drives the motion, and our gravitational equations are correct, so they are left to believe there must be a missing element we are not including in our equations to account for the motion of the system. They then “reverse engineer” what elements would make the equation work mathematically, and the result is the so-called “dark matter”.
Neutrinos certainly exist, and they are “dim” matter, just barely detectable. It is not impossible that some other form of matter exists that only interacts with “ordinary” matter through gravity.
Despite your dismissive tone, dark matter seems to satisfy Occam’s razor as the most plausible explanation.
Certainly it's not impossible, but it's highly improbable that such matter would seem to know exactly where to distribute itself in every galaxy in order to make the motion of the galaxies behave as if they were not governed solely by the laws of gravity. If the "dark matter" were simply distributed according to the same rules as ordinary matter, it would be of no help to us in solving this problem, so what directs the "dark matter" to be located in just the right places, everywhere in the universe?
Scientists never seem to address that question. They are satisfied with the fact that it's possible that "dark matter" could be distributed in such a way, and completely sidestep the question why would "dark matter" be distributed in such a way?
Fractality of space time - measurements of relative velocities of objects with our present assumptions are not accurate.
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