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Galaxies Floating on a Dark Matter Stream
Darkman, Walkin Dude writes "A team in Switzerland has discovered that most of the small satellite galaxies around the Milky Way's near-twin, Andromeda, are lined up in a single plane that slices through Andromeda's spiral disc. Using images from the Hubble space telescope, soon to be decommissioned, the researchers found that 9 of the 14 of Andromeda's satellites lay on a relatively narrow plane bisecting Andromeda. From the article: 'The team believes the plane could have formed in several ways. In one scenario, the galaxies may have fallen towards Andromeda along an invisible filament of dark matter. Computer simulations show these filaments can form a cosmic web along which galaxies flow.'"
Does dark matter hold our universe together in a web? Perhaps, though this would mean that there is no such thing as truly empty space as a small amount of dark matter would have to exist. Perhaps what lays beneath the edges of our universe is nothing in the sense of it being devoid of dark matter?
Check this out: From this article.
While this article only mentions computer simulations, many scientific groups have gone along further researching, convinced that the cosmic web does exist. Some people have based most of their work on dark matter and the cosmic web though I believe it is still speculation and has yet to be accepted by the science community as a whole. I've read some crazy stuff about dark matter, like how it might be the "gravity particle" that is attracted to matter uniformly and causes the gravitational pull between objects. And even crazier books suggesting that the only way we'll ever be able to communicate between parallel existences is by lowering and raising these gravity particles.
Now, the slashdot community seems to be fairly educated and extremely opinionated so how about it--does dark matter exist? If so, since it is very difficult to detect, what are its defining properties?
My work here is dung.
How the fuck did you write such a thorough and cogent response as a FIRST POST nonetheless??!?!?!
In another scenario, the Intelligent Designer put them on that specific plane just to see how long it took before somebody noticed and claimed that it must be Dark Matter.
Eric Lerner is looking less and less like a crank with every new cosmological experiment, I think this is exactly what his plasma filament theory of the intergalactic medium has been predicting.
"North Korea is making far bigger noises about making their own nuclear bombs, but no one seems to make such a fuss ...."
[OT, Sorry.]
Um, yeah, that's because several countries have diplomatic relations with NK and are negotiating with them. The US is actually doing the right thing here (or at least what everybody wanted them to do with regards to Iraq), but nobody wants to acknowledge that because of the monkey in the White House.
"Derp de derp."
In one scenario, the galaxies may have fallen towards Andromeda along an invisible filament of dark matter.
In another scenario, the Flying Spaghetti Monster might have used His Noodly Appendage to intelligently design it that way. Scientists speculate the arrangement makes it easier for Him to make a bank shot on the 9-ball galaxy.
Study everything, you'll find something you can use - Jason Bourne
Am I the only one who thinks this headline sounds like something some scientist completely pulled out of his ass? "Yeah...so you know dark matter? All the planets are, like, floating on it. And I am TOTALLY stoned...."
Um dude, O'Keefe has been gone from NASA for nine months now, your article link is almost a year old. One of the first things that the new administrator Michael Griffin did when he took over the reins was to try to figure out ways to keep Hubble alive. Griffin's an actual scientist, unlike O'Keefe who's a career-track manager. And thus sees the important of Hubble, which has been indispensible for astronomical research.
Direct from NASA's Hubble page , it says
make world, not war
If they eventually find more evidence for these "dark matter streams", and start naming them, I think "the styx" would be a completely awesome name for such a stream.
I'm sorry. The number you have reached is imaginary. Please rotate your phone 90 degrees and try again.
In his zeal to take a political potshot Zonk has ignored the most recent developments. Don't be deceived. NASA administrator Michael Griffin has reconsidered earlier the earlier decision to scrap Hubble servicing. A shuttle crew will indeed have to risk their lives to extend Hubble's life for a few more years. Relax. There should still be lots of money left over to invest in Iraqi freedom, and to kill Al Qaida.
an ill wind that blows no good
your article link is almost a year old
I even noted that in my post, to pre-emptively head off any nitpicking. Looking at the page you link to, I see no concrete plans. I see "if", I see "possibility", I see "could", and I see "might". Nothing that says, yes, we will repair Hubble in the mission scheduled for such and such a date. I'm all for a continuance of Hubble service; I just don't see it happening.
O'Keefe has been gone from NASA for nine months now
Yup, I should have said "said", not says. Mea culpa for the typo.
What he can't kill, he has sex on. Trent.
Galaxies Floating on a Dark Matter Stream
So, the old lady was right... it's turtles all the way down.
Want to improve your Karma? Instead of "Post Anonymously", try the "Post Humously" option.
...here. With some uberkewl photos to back up what they're saying.
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
So we have two theories:
a) dark matter filaments (modeled on a computer no less). Matter we cannot see; who's existence is contentious, etc.
b) the remnants of a cannibalized galaxy. Solid evidence of this principle abundantly available.
Why leap to the more complicated and, arguably esoteric, explanation?
"Consensus" in science is _always_ a political construct.
AP - Scientists at the prestigious CERN institute in Switzerland announced late Friday that the so-called 'dark matter', which makes up 90% of the universe, is actually bullshit.
"These findings come as a surprise," stated Dr. Weissmann, lead scientist at the institute. "Before today, we thought dark matter might be, say, an agglomeration of exotic subatomic particles, like muons or 'strange' quarks, signifying a problem with the equations governing space-time. Instead, all that turns out to be bullshit."
Other hypotheses included Cheez-puffs and intelligent end-users. But the conclusive evidence for the new Bullshit Theory of Matter came from the Hubble space telescope, which since 1995 has been sending back data that, according to scientists, is "complete and utter bull."
"Over and over we ran through the equations, and each time we came up with the same answer: This is crap," affirmed Weismann. "It's satisfying, in a way, to be able to say that about your life's work."
-C.
- undoware.ca
ahref=http://www.mkaku.org/rel=url2html-18972http: //www.mkaku.org/>
San Francisco Photographers
In general, the popular belief is that ALL of space is filled with "quantum foam", which contains a mass of virtual particles whose sum (over any statistically significant volume) will be zero. These virtual particles are not "dark matter", precisely for that reason - dark matter (if it exists) sums to extremely large values.
These virtual particles are of all sorts and would include quantum wormholes and quantum black holes amongst others. Now, although on average quantum foam has absolutely zero impact, it can have very local, short-lived effects. Hawking radiation would be one. It may be possible these local variations can account for everything "dark matter" has been attributed to.
"Empty space" contains (according to theorists) all sorts of other exotic phenomena. "Superstrings", for example, which have negative gravity and essentially fill all of the other functions attributed to "dark matter" PLUS being one step closer to unifying gravity with all of the other forces, at the cost of having to live in a twelve-dimensional universe (or is it 15, now? Superstring theorists keep adding more.)
Again, though, superstrings would eliminate the need for "dark matter" and would even be a "better" explanation for the odd layout of those galaxies. The antigravitational effect of superstrings would rip apart galaxies that weren't threaded, so threading is exactly what you'd expect. (I wonder if they're POSIX threads?)
These all assume, of course, that anything new is required at all. Current theories that require something to be present may simply be consequences of being based on observation, as observation requires something to be present to be observed. You cannot observe nothing, because you can never prove that it truly is nothing, only that it lacks all the somethings that you would normally observe.
The gravitational models of the galaxy that required "dark matter":
Now, it can be argued that that was not the only model that required "dark matter", but I will argue that if we keep the dark matter in, we now introduce errors by having variables that try to compensate for something that doesn't happen. I will also argue that cosmologists should verify that ALL of the factors I've listed have in fact been taken into account with all these other "dark matter" scenarios.
This is not to say I'm convinced by the other theories, either. I don't like adding large numbers of variables purely to eliminate other variables. That's messy and a sign of really bad science. The quantum foam, for my money, seems to be the "best" of a bunch of really screwball ideas, and is probably sufficient to account for all of the effects that everything else is intended to describe.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
> Matter = Stuff Anti-Matter = Stuff that blows stuff up Dark Matter = The stuff that isn't there, that we keep bumping into
To paraphrase the old saw about virtual memory:
If you can see it and it's there, it's matter.
If you can see it and it's not there, it's a virtual particle.
If you can't see it and it's there, it's dark matter.
If you can't see it and it's not there, it's dark energy.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade