In 1998 astronomers blew the lid off of the oscillating universe theory (first a big bang occurs, galaxies fly away from each other then slow down, slower and slower then gravity starts pulling them together again until they collide together and BOOM another big bang) because they discovered that the expanding galaxies were not slowing down, but actually accelerating aqwy from each other faster and faster.
Previous theories were tossed out, and new ones were needed.
One prominent theory suggested that there was additional matetr out there beyond the galaxies and the gravitation of that unseen matter is pulling the galaxies away faster and faster.
The frantic search for the elusive "dark matetr" began.
It has been one of the greatest hunts in the history of physics.
Now, apparently the hunt is over.
But.....
They really do not understand the nature of this exotic stuff. It is not like normal matter. Some theories suggest it is actually matter at the intersection of other dimensions, neither totally in our dimensions nor in the other dimensions.
Kinda like light which has properties of both matter and electromagnetic waves at the same time.
This is very big news.
Very elegant--finding a spot where natural forces ought to separate the dark and luminous matter. It must have been a very cool moment when they first overlaid the IR chart with the lensing chart.
At a minimum, future work is going to have to explain gravitational centers that are completely separate from the IR centers. Dark matter seems like a pretty good way to do it. And, the dark matter theory obviously predicted this result in this oddball situation before the observations were made--they wouldn't have gotten 100 hours on the scope without a pretty compelling case that this was a way to test the dark matter theory. Sometimes science is just beautiful.
This result is, I think, almost as important as the confirmation of relativity by gravitational bending of light.
Um.....ERrrr....."Subspace"?
Interesting....We have sure come a long way since space was a simple vacuum. I recall scientists were puzzled by speed variations in our explorer craft that had left the solar system and were still transmitting data. Something besides gravity was affecting them.
We may be getting closer to figuring out gravity....At least I hope so.
I have alway thought that dark matter was connected somehow. I'm saving up for my anti-grav suit.:-)(bad knees and hip)
I should have read further through the posts.
If I go in to a thick forest in the middle of the night and turn out all the lights and I can not see my hand the dirt on the ground is dark matter is it not?