Scientists first came up with the idea of dark matter when studying clusters. Clusters in space which contain galaxies and any other material in between. Clusters are held together by the gravity of all of the matter. In between the matter of the cluster is hot gas. Scientists studied the hot gas to find that it was reacting abnormally. Scientists calculated how much gravity should exist in the cluster, and found that there is more gravity acting on the hot gas than should be. That means that there must other matter where this gravity is coming from. Therefore, dark matter is born. Is that the right explanation, though?
Dark matter is basically the same as matter except it is invisible. It is matter that does not give off radiation. No light comes from it. It is quite possible that the matter is simply not giving off any light. If a small star burns out, it no longer emits radiation. It could be dark matter because we would not be able to detect it is it no longer gave off radiation. Since our universe has been around for a long time, many stars could have died out that weren't large enough to supernova. But it was calculated that in a cluster 5/6 of the matter in the universe is dark matter. What could some of this matter be?
It is a possibility that the matter could be in the center of the black holes in the galaxies. The black holes would hide a ton of matter because no light can escape them. They also have huge gravitational effects.
Material near the dead stars would not be reflecting any light because they have no light to reflect. Therefore they could also be hidden.
There is also a possibility that the dark matter is just a different type of matter. We are most familiar with baryonic matter, which is matter that has protons, neutrons, and electrons. However, there are other types of matter. Some types of matter do not have any of those three subatomic particles! Some matter is just made up of two quarks. The types of matter made out of subatomic particles with only two quarks are called mesons. However, I am not sure that this type of matter is much different than baryons.
Perhaps the gravity isn't coming from matter in our universe. Perhaps an object in another brane is affecting our universe. You know what that means. String theory! If a parallel brane to the brane of our universe has gravity, it could affect our universe. The gravitons (gravity enforcing particles) could move out from the parallel brane into ours, which would change the gravity amount without any apparent cause.
Is there dark matter? I think there is, and it is not as mysterious as we think. Dark matter is just ordinary matter without reflecting any light. Just because we can't detect it doesn't mean that it isn't there! I don't think it is all that mysterious. We won't know for sure though until we find it!
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Even though I am usually reluctant to use string theory, I think in this case it makes sense, possibly more sense than phantom black holes. Do gravitons have any mass that we could measure?
ReplyDeleteHowever, black holes would make sense. It looks like the symptoms of dark matter and black holes are the same.
What if the scientists have got there calculations incorrect. The gasses could actually contain liquids or solids that they can't detect because of the extreme thickness of the gas. Unfortunately I missed the show on Dark matter, but from what I saw on other shows there are moons in our own solar system that we don't know what the center looks like because of the surrounding gasses. Pretty erie I'd say.
ReplyDeleteEven if the calculations were all correct, just because it doesn't give off light doesn't mean that you can't feel it or see a reflection from another energy source.
That and following Aarons say, Unless there is no molecular movement (0K) It has energy. And an object at 0K still has subatomic movement or the -+ forces would come together and be inseperable,tearing the rest of the atom and possibly parts of atoms in a compound with itself apart. The movement of them around each other, like the moon around earth(different forces, but you get the meaning) keeps them apart and creating a particle.
Therefore I conclude that there has to atleast be subatomic energy if nothing else, and that is still energy which should be detectable with the right equipment.
Dorothea, gravitons do not have mass as far as we know.
ReplyDeleteShannon, of course there is always a chance that the calculations are incorrect. There is also a chance that we don't exist. Because of relativity, you have to believe in some sort of basis in order to draw any conclusions at all.
Sure there are other ways to detect particles besides light. There is other radiation, but I am not sure that we could necessarily detect it. We may not have good enough equipment to detect nearly static particles.
Electrons do continue to move if an atom is still, but maybe dark matter doesn't have electrons in it. It could be mesonic matter, which is not of protons, neutrons, and electrons, but particles like pions, kaons, and B-zero particles.
so I find that this whole thing is fake
ReplyDeletefor one the matter would have to not be moving or it would give off radiation. this means that it would have to be below 0 Kelvin which is vutually impossible. even if there was no melecular movement it still would be effected by surrounding objects and if it was at that temp it would be a solid
second it have to much mass to be a gas. it is supposed to be 5/6 of the over all mass wich mean that its gravitation ratio is the same that ratio is too big to be not noticed.
Lucky for me, I'm not sure about you, but I viewed a rerun of the show on Dark matter!!! :)
ReplyDeleteIt turns out that I am slightly confused about the idea that the scientists propose. The reason for dark matter was so that the outer solar systems in galaxies travelled at the same speed as the inner ones. The confusing part is that it is not so for solar systems such as our own. Atleast that is what was implied by the entire problem because it didn't exist while we were studying our solar system.
If there is dark matter, shouldn't it effect the small as well as the large? (relatively speaking)
Another confusing factor is that in the model they showed, even though the radius is bigger and they claimed to be going the same speed, after making a slight spiral shape the outer solar systems kept up with the inner ones maintaining the spiral, but not increasing the twist. That doesn't make sense to me.
Also, True statement about the ratio being 5:6, but there is another component: Dark Energy, which is pulling everything apart. Now giving rough % to the ratio, 5% is matter 20% is Dark matter and 75% is Dark Energy.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately I am still confused about the purpose of Dark Matter, but it seems that Dark Energy is the opposite, so couldn't they just cancel each other out?
Can we explain Dark Energy in another way?
Going back to 7th grade science class, we learned about Osmosis and Diffusion. It seems to me that this is exactly what is happening on large scale. The Universe is trying to distribute itself evenly, but is is not exactly expanding.
Remember that die in water experiment? If not, the few drops of die spread out in the entire sink filled with water. The same is happening here. The matter is filling the entire "sink".
That would get rid of the need for Dark Energy. but Why did the die fill the sink? pressure differences? the Gravitational pull between all of the particles on each other? another force? I'm pretty sure the 7th grade experiment with the bag and the water was pressure, but is it always?
I feel like I should provide an answer to that question, but I don't know it and am much to lazy to try and find one. Therefore, I leave you with a cliff hanger. (I hope someone will respond to this and all my words not be waisted)
also on that show it said that black matter is very hard to abtain and no one has isolated it yet. my thoughts are that if black matter has a high overall ratio to "regular" matter then why is it so darn hard to catch and also it is supposed to help hold things together it would only be logical that it would be drawn to an area with a high density like a black hole and/or stars thus why not shoot a lazer toward the object and use it like sonic maping and in the result you would be able to record the matter around the chosen object.
ReplyDeleteto answer or slightly answer shannons thoughts, the water and dye experement is carried out by the knowledge that waterbased dye and water are similar in that respect. thus when in contact they use the well known property of osmosis (or something like that) to distribute the dye thoughout the water. this is because the dye is denser than water and so each part wants to be at the same desity.
ReplyDeleteit is also a well known fact that water and petroleum do not mix under normal conditions. the two unsimilar compounds will make a heterogenius mixture and can only be combigned in a chemical reaction. the similar objects can combigned to make a homogenius mixture.
using the knowledge given you can logically state the the universe has to be made up of "similar" materials. matter and vaccume do not mix. there has to be energy or matter that is creating a bridge that combigns matter and vaccume. therefore distabution may take place.
this whole consept means that dark energy is an emolsifier,if you will, that combigns these states,objects, nothingness,whatever you want to call it, together.
For Aaron, Water and Petroleum don't mix, but If they weren't on earth or another place with a large gravitational pull and only had themselves to attract to, what would they do, have a sphere of water surrounded by petroleum?
ReplyDeleteAnyway, Since I have been going on about Fractal Geometry, It has occurred to me that these Dark Matter particles might just be matter so small that we can not detect them. However unlike Electrons and Quarks, this matter isn't moving quickly at all and therefore has the properties of matter not energy, but that leads back to the points at the top of the page.
I obviously missed a ton of stuff.
ReplyDeleteOn the note of osmosis, I don't think it necessarily applies to our universe, and here's why. With the dye in the water experiment, the dye is all the same mass and material, allowing it to be evenly distributed amongst the water. In our universe, objects are not all the same mass and material, therefore osmosis does not necessarily apply.
If any molecular movement can be detected, then dark matter is probably not in our dimension. The dark matter could be either in a parallel universe or in a different spatial dimension. Or it could be string theory.
It could be possible to be too small to detect, but the small particle radiation would eventually add up, wouldn't it?
After some research, it is possible that dark matter is in a halo around the galaxy, which is why we can't get any because it is too far away. It would also explain why the galaxy is in a flat spiral shape. With the supermassive black hole in the center, and dark matter on the outside, the gravity would cause the shape of the galaxy to be in a spiral.
Because it is in a spiral, that means that the dark matter may not be evenly distributed around the galaxy. Different arms are formed in the galaxy which have spaces in between them. Therefore, dark matter may not be constant.
Now we enter dark energy. Dark energy is basically a cosmological constant. It was created for the sake of making the equations work. There is a possibility that the equations could be incorrect. The opposing theory to dark energy is actually string theory. There would be no need to have dark energy because dark energy was created to explain why the universe is accelerating when it expands. With string theory, the movement of the 4-branes that surround our universe would allow for an accelerating expansion.
Really at this point all theories seem radical. String theory is right now the best option, or at least makes the most sense. Even thought the theory in general makes the least sense.
I am not sure what else to say. Overall I think that dark matter may be possible, but considering that dark energy would take up 74% of the energy-mass in our universe, I think there is something wrong.
ok so just so you know dan, dye and water do not have the same mass, density, volume, and it is not the same thing.
ReplyDeleteit may be based off of water but it has a greater mass at a congruent temp to the water thus it desperses due to osmosis and gravity.
even though I see what you mean that is probably not a huge factor in the relative perspective.
I think we don't have enough facts to carry on this topic effectivly,and we don't have the resorces to work on it.
Aaron, I meant that the dye is all the same material. There aren't different types of dye in the water, just one type. The dye is all the same material. In the universe, if the vacuum was water, you have many different shapes and types of material in the water, not just dye. That was my point.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the dark matter topic is pretty much closed now.
TO Aaron and the Water-Petroleum mix, If you deleted our solar system and only had particles of Water and Petroleum, they would spread out in a, more likely than not, "cloud" and probably wouldn't have water in the middle and petroleum on the outside. It would probably be very cold too with little molecular movement so it might form an asteroid, or whatever, because of the gravitational pull of the other particles.
ReplyDeleteANyway, the point being, the petroleum and water would mix, very dispersed but mixed.