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Examining the Expected Effects of Dark Matter On the Solar System
First time accepted submitter LiavK writes "Ethan Siegel recently wrote a great post for ScienceBlogs discussing the expected total mass of dark matter in the solar system. As far as we can tell, dark matter only interacts weakly, via gravity, both with itself and normal matter. So, it can't collide with itself, meaning that it has no way of getting hotter and radiating away energy and momentum. This means that it remains a diffuse mess, with a density that is ridiculously low, to the point where detecting its local effects is likely to remain... challenging for the foreseeable future."
As opposed to the ether of the 19th century, quantum fields, which are what we currently use to explain everything?
Michelson and Morley found that the hypothetical ether had no detectable effects.
In contrast, scientists started by measuring orbital velocities and could only explain them with dark matter.
My bet is that the need for dark matter will disappear when relativistic effects are properly taken into account.
And I bet that at some point during the last few decades of thousands of observations, theories, and calculations by thousands of astronomers, physicists, and mathematicians (some with Nobel prizes, no less), someone would have already thought of this if it was an issue.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
That's because when you say things like that you check off quite a few boxes on the crackpot criteria.
It's not a religion. Lots of different dark matter theories and alternatives have been proposed and tested. The problem is that when some random Slashdotter comes along and says "dude, it must be something else!" the actual astronomers, and the amateurs who can read, roll their eyes. When the same Slashdotter then says "dude, you're not taking me seriously because you can't get past your religious dogma!" said astronomers and literate amateurs roll their eyes harder.
Ah, I understand. You're talking about people who are skeptical of your favourite off the wall theory. That's not religion. As the thread before your post said, when Slashdotter 214243 comes along with some theory from left field, along with an assertion that the experts (some of whom have Nobel prizes), who have put careers into looking into this question, are wrong (or religious), he better have some good evidence to support it. Every time I've seen it that "evidence" boiled down to a vague, usually incorrect understanding, usually with a healthy dose of conspiracy theory.
Maybe you've seen something a little more solid? Care to share?