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The Search for Dark Matter and Dark Energy

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the someone-needs-to-turn-on-a-light dept.

mlimber writes "The New York Times Magazine has a lengthy article on dark matter and dark energy, discussing the past, present, and future. 'Astronomers now realize that dark matter probably involves matter that is nonbaryonic ["meaning that it doesn't consist of the protons and neutrons of 'normal' matter"]. And whatever it is that dark energy involves, we know it's not 'normal,' either. In that case, maybe this next round of evidence will have to be not only beyond anything we know but also beyond anything we know how to know.'"

5 of 212 comments (clear)

  1. Knowing Know by Reason58 · · Score: 5, Funny

    In that case, maybe this next round of evidence will have to be not only beyond anything we know but also beyond anything we know how to know. I knew he was going to say that.
  2. How about ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Very large bodies don't behave according to Newton. Very small bodies behave according to the rules of quantum physics, so it's clear that one law doesn't regulate every case. Dark matter/energy are just a fudge factor because we can't explain what happens without them, but that doesn't prove that they exist. All that is proven is that we don't understand what is happening.

  3. Re:Can dark matter just be.. by Gil-galad55 · · Score: 5, Informative
    Large black holes are located at the center of galaxies, and their mass can be determined by examining rotation curves, etc. They are not dark matter candidates. Primordial black holes are not massive enough. There is some possibility that dark matter could be non-luminous dust, but there are some limits placed on observations of the comsic microwave background, which would have had to travel over 13 billion light years through such dust without being significantly attenuated.


    The 'size' of the universe is an ill-defined question. We can only observe what's in our past light cone, and it is *that* universe which suffers from a budget shortfall of matter/energy.

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    To follow knowledge like a sinking star, / Beyond the utmost bound of human thought. ("Ulysses", Tennyson)

  4. "Normal?" by Flwyd · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If dark matter makes up most of the mass in the universe, wouldn't the kind of matter we're familiar with be the abnormal kind?

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    Ceci n'est pas une signature.
  5. Dark Matter Exists by baboonlogic · · Score: 5, Informative

    Here is an excellent article by Sean Carroll of the California institute of Technology that explains why all the suggestions of the parent post may not be correct.

    Basically, what it says is that if two large clusters of galaxies went right through each other, and dark matter was really like the normal matter in the way the parent post suggests, we would get a different result from what would happen if dark matter was for real. Astronomers have discovered one such system and this provides conclusive evidence for the existence of dark matter.