Posted on 04/01/2009 2:34:24 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
PARIS (AFP) – European astronomers said on Wednesday that an anomalous energy signal detected by an orbiting satellite could be a telltale of the enigmatic substance known as dark matter.
The researchers, in a study appearing in the British journal Nature, say the hunch is that they picked up a signature of this strange phenomenon, but more work is needed.
Some years ago, astrophysicists calculating the amount of matter in the Universe arrived at the startling discovery that ordinary material -- atoms -- comprises perhaps as little as five percent of the stuff in the cosmos.
The rest, they believe, comes from the "dark" sector: matter and energy that appear to be pervasive but whose nature remains a puzzle.
Dark matter, which believes to account for 23 percent of the Universe, has been detected only indirectly, through the gravitational pull it exerts on visible matter.
What it is has ignited huge debate, including the hypothesis that dark matter is a new dimension of the Universe.
Another theory is that dark matter must be a new particle, or particles, that interact so weakly with ordinary matter that it does not produce light-emitting reactions. WIMPS (Weakly Interacting Massive Particles) are among the candidates for this.
Another idea is that dark matter is linked to "supersymmetric" particles, or partners to known sub-atomic particles.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
This August 2008 image taken by the Hubble Space Telescope and Chandra X-ray Observatory show a clear separation
between dark and ordinary matter during a clash 5.7 billion light years from Earth.
European astronomers said on Wednesday that an anomalous energy signal detected by an orbiting satellite
could be a telltale of the enigmatic substance known as dark matter.
(AFP/NASA/File)
Maybe dark matter is made out of Irridium ... at at least that's what the orbiting satellite detected.
‘dark matter’ eh?
I think they just detected that usurping little dark smudge in the Oval Office, that’s all.
I suspect dark matter is really a miscalculation; the missing matter is in super massive black hoes.
LOL
[Maybe dark matter is made out of Irridium ... at at least that’s what the orbiting satellite detected. ]
It is actually made of Soeterium, a substance as elusive as Barry’s birth certificate.
Cheers!
Cheers!
thanks, bfl
dark matter??? i thought is was between Zer0bamas ears...
· Google ·
Perhaps one needs to “Think Differently”
What is Null Physics?
Null Physics is the analysis and quantification of the relationship between the physical states of existence and nonexistence. This relationship leads directly to the intricate four-dimensional geometry of which matter and energy are composed. This geometry is used to explain and quantify many of the properties of matter and light, ultimately leading to a unified cosmology that demonstrates, through logic and a wealth of empirical evidence, that our universe is an eternal equilibrium system.
No need for anything that exotic. We could also guess that deep space is less empty than we suppose, filled with myriad asteroids, planetoids, and failed stars which can’t be seen directly.
Hmmm....
/mark
My own belief is the missing “mass” is due to an incomplete understanding of space itself.
If space is to energy as energy is to mass, then the missing mass can be found by adjusting for inconsitently dense space.
IOW, space is lumpy or crystaline-like in structure.
An ex-student of Scully’s asks the agents to help her with her first investigation concerning a number of disappearances with very few clues. Mulder ponders the idea of spontaneous human combustion but rethinks it when they find a man who is afraid of his own shadow. The man is Dr. Banton, a scientist researching dark matter. Due to an accident Dr. Banton's shadow can split an individual's atomic structure causing them to disappear, with only a charred-like remnant remaining where they stood. He is now convinced that the government is after him and Mulder contacts Mr. X, who declines to help him, and it is later revealed that he has his own agenda to pursue.
General Relativity can be visualized geometrically. Indeed, he was able to pull Riemannian geometry off the shelf to explain it.
That, btw, is one of my favorite examples of the unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics (Wigner) which I view as God's copyright notice on the cosmos.
High positive gravity regions (such as the earth or sun - ordinary matter) are space/time indentations. An object must achieve escape velocity to exit the well.
The path of light bends under the influence of these indentations.
The very high positive gravity regions (such as the center of galaxies or black holes - dark matter) are extreme space/time indentations. Not even light has the velocity to escape a black hole. (Black holes however are subject to entropy but that is another subject.)
Conversely, the regions between galaxies (dark energy) can be seen as negative gravity or space/time "outdents" which of course would accelerate the expansion of the universe.
This of course points to extra dimensional theories, i.e. the region appears to be negative gravity in four dimensions (three of space and one of time) because it exists across other additional dimensions of space/time. Some physicists theorize that gravity is so small by comparison to the other fundamental fields (strong and weak atomic, electromagnetism) precisely because it is inter-dimensional.
Also pointing to extra-dimensional theories is the failure so far to create or observe the theorized Higgs field/boson (ordinary matter under the Standard Model.) If not found, the absence would suggest that matter in four dimensions is a shadow of momentum components in a fifth dimension which we cannot as yet detect.
And at least one theory suggests a fifth time like dimension whereby the matter we observe in four dimensions is actually multiply imaged from as little as a single particle in the fifth time-like dimension. (Wesson) In that theory, this four dimensional physical "reality" might actually be a single particle.
Interestingly, if there exists another expanded dimension of time - then what we experience as an arrow of time (past, present, future) traveling a worldline is the illusion. Time itself would be a plane or volumetric - past, present, future existing concurrently in the continuum of space/time.
When a person considers geometric or mathematical physics, his sense of physical reality will likely change. This is especially true of mathematical Platonism.
Tegmark for instance suggests in his Level IV Parallel Universe cosmology that physical "reality" of whatever dimensions and universes is a manifestation of mathematical structures which actually exist outside of space and time.
The Platonic paradigm raises the question of why the universe is the way it is. To an Aristotelian, this is a meaningless question: The universe just is. But a Platonist cannot help but wonder why it could not have been different. If the universe is inherently mathematical, then why was only one of the many mathematical structures singled out to describe a universe? A fundamental asymmetry appears to be built into the very heart of reality.
>>Perhaps one needs to “Think Differently”
http://www.spaceandmotion.com/Most-Simple-Scientific-Theory-Reality.htm
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