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Article about dark matter
Posted on: August 22, 2006 - 1:10pm
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Article about dark matter
I found this article today on Google News about Dark Matter: I think it's very interesting, but astronomy and physics aren't areas I'm very familiar with. Perhaps someone or someones would like to comment on the implications of this development for the Big Bang Theory, and we can all discuss it.
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I saw that article as well..unfortunately that is not an area I am all too familiar with. and where the hell has Yellow gone to????????
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Just checked space.com and its there too. http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/060821_dark_matter.html
So its not a bogus article. As far as what this means for the Big Bang theory, in my opinion it puts to rest all those Dark Matter haters, myself included. Basically they finally found the evidence for the reason why galaxies behave differently than other smaller objects, and why the Universe is expanding at an accellerated rate, to be honest I don't think it has much to do with the Big Bang theory lol. Since, Dark Matter doesn't give off any light on any spectrum nor does it collide with normal matter. You can imagine its quite difficult to detect. Hopefully Mike will be able to illuminate the reprecussions of these findings better than I.
I hope they cannot see
the limitless potential
living inside of me
to murder everything.
I hope they cannot see
I am the great destroyer.
The Astronomy Pic of the Day today is about this: link.
What it has to do with big bang is that dark matter is the extra missing mass that could kick the total mass of the universe over the line that might allow the Big Crunch. The way it was detected was from the "gravitational lensing" effect it has on galaxies behind it. In layman's terms, a massive object will bend space around it and the light passing through it. From observing this light, the bend can be detected and the mass of the object can be calculated from this.
Dark matter has a huge effect on our understanding of gravity as well. It helps explain, for example as The_Fragile mentioned, why galaxies have enough gravity to stay together. Looking at only visible matter, there shouldn't be enough gravity to hold them together. So either gravity works differently and is stronger than we think, or there's more mass that we can't see. This proves it's the latter.
Badastronomy.com, which seems to have crashed at the moment, had a blog entry about this a couple days ago. Here's another reason to add to the list of why I suggested having Phil Plait, aka the Bad Astronomer, on the show. I'm sure he could explain this.
So remember, when you're feeling very small and insecure,
How amazingly unlikely is your birth;
And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere out in space,
'Cause there's bugger all down here on Earth!
- Eric Idle, from The Galaxy Song
One other thing in regards to a Big Bang connection. Considering this current observation is of the collision of two galaxy clusters, an extremely huge, violent, and energetic event, I would think it logically follows that a monumentally enormous, violent, and energetic event like the Big Bang would fling out a whole shitload of dark matter. Understanding how during this galactic collision event dark matter was created and how it's created in general, would presumably be very important in understanding the physics involved in the Big Bang.
So remember, when you're feeling very small and insecure,
How amazingly unlikely is your birth;
And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere out in space,
'Cause there's bugger all down here on Earth!
- Eric Idle, from The Galaxy Song
I actually blogged about this a while back. Unfortnately, according to my site meter, the only people who've read that post are people who've searched for "seeing ghosts" on Google (that's what I get for using lowbrow metaphors). I thought by linking to it here I might reach my intended target audience.
Also, I want to try out my new avatar. I've been a lurking member for a while; it's about time I actually posted something.
Well, as was already mentioned, this doesn't really have huge impacts on BB theory.
It does however have possible implications on the fate of the universe and several multi-verse theories.
I am against religion because it teaches us to be satisfied with not understanding the world. - Richard Dawkins
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