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To: doc30; Physicist
What vexes me is the structure of dark matter. Does it form some type of "proton" or "electron"? Is it homogeneously distributed or is there some kind of structure behind it? Does it aggregate to form large masses the way normal matter forms planets and stars, or even simple dust grains? With all that mass, can dark matter form black holes? Are there different types of dark matter? Evidence of its existence, like this in the NASA report, is interesting, but it breeds a whole host of additional questions.

.... most of which cannot be answered until they come up with some idea of what the "dark" matter is made up of, which is probably a job for the particle physicists.

Physicist; do you have any info on lines of research trying to determine what the dark matter is? What do they know it is is NOT made out of?

77 posted on 08/22/2006 6:42:35 AM PDT by longshadow (FReeper #405, entering his ninth year of ignoring nitwits, nutcases, and recycled newbies)
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To: longshadow; doc30
Physicist; do you have any info on lines of research trying to determine what the dark matter is? What do they know it is is NOT made out of?

It is not made out of any known type of particle. It can be bound gravitationally, as we see here, but it does not form clumps like stars or dust grains.

As for the black hole question, as luck would have it, I answered that before.

78 posted on 08/22/2006 7:50:57 AM PDT by Physicist
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