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New Hubble Release Puts Another Nail In the Coffin of Dark Matter's Competitors (spacetelescope.org)
StartsWithABang writes: When it comes to the structure of the Universe — forming the galaxies, clusters, and Universe as we see it — the normal matter we know of simply isn't enough. Given our best-understood laws of physics, including Einstein's general relativity, what we see of galaxies and the Universe in general simply doesn't match up to our predictions. The simplest solution, arguably, is to just add a new ingredient: a new form of matter, a dark matter if you will. But a counterargument is that we've got the laws of gravity wrong, and that no new matter is necessary. There's only one way to settle an argument like this: with data, evidence and the full suite of observations at our disposal. The newest Hubble release, along with four other independent lines of evidence, rule out modifications of gravity and leave dark matter as the only option standing.
None of the references point to co-gravition, or Heaviside's force, which seems to produce much of the desired results called for. Co-gravitation just requires to rethink the nature of energy, though, since it implies that the gravitational field is a sink of energy, Flag as Inappropriate. A good deal of work has been done by the likes of O. Jeffimenko, and more recently T de Mees. Heaviside suggested the necessary forces in 1893.
OS/2 - because choice is a terrible thing to waste.
Thank you. I just can't bring myself to accept dark matter as a viable option. It seems so ad hoc. It is only the best explanation given our current knowledge.
While I agree with you, I am forced to contemplate some of the speculations about how wormholes (if they do indeed exist) and warp drives created without massive singularities as drive components (Read: Impractical) could be constructed and the only working models that have not been ruled as impossible involve some magical stuff referred to as "Exotic matter" of which this dark matter is a proposed type. (This is Non-Baryonic matter I am referring to.) This means that there is more to matter than the standard model predicts and that things like FTL via space warping by some sort of practical means, or the means to travel via wormholes (which includes time travel) and anti-gravity, is still not ruled out.
There is good and bad and intermixed between the two is confounding and confusing until we have the right set of epiphanies.
That actually makes some intuitive sense. My only problem with "dark matter" is the term itself: I saw recently in Nature (the science mag) that one astronomer had proposed the term "transparent matter," which I like a lot better.
Development is programmable; Discovery is not programmable. (Fuller)
So was the hypothesis of the neutrino before it was actually detected. You see, there was this anomaly in the beta decay spectrum and it was hypothesized that the missing energy was carried away by this particle called a neutrino. Decades later the neutrino was actually detected. In what way is dark matter different?
The neutrino hypothesis included some very specific property values for the particle, and possible ways it could be detected. Dark matter, not so much.
"Somebody has to do something. It's just incredibly pathetic it has to be us."
--- Jerry Garcia
It's only handwavy because you don't want to take the time to understand the evidence for it and against it. There is a lot of evidence for the WIMP model of dark matter, including the current data just posted and things like the Bullet Cluster.
Realistically, wormholes or not, even a civilization limited to light speed travel should have been able to colonize or visit most of the galaxy in just a few million years with robotic exploration. So, it is looking like there is either no one else out there, or just as likely, there is some sort of barrier to intelligent civilizations being able to launch such an effort like colonization or robotic exploration.
Obviously, this all assumes that someone would have done all of this first. We might be either the first civilization at this point, or at the very least, a member of the "first wave" of civilizations where the other civilizations do exist, but their evidence has not yet arrived here. That scenario is just as likely as any other solution, but it is less useful because then we have nothing yet to look for in order to confirm our theory, so we tend to assume that we're not a member of "the First Ones".
There is also the idea that there may be a "Great Filter", which is some sort of event or situation that all intelligent species run into before they can do interstellar exploration. It could be something like nuclear holocaust or self-destruction being inevitable, or as simple as running out of available energy to be able to maintain high technology before they could start the program. Or some combination.
Nuclear war, unfortunately, is probably inevitable. It is a more distant threat than it used to be, but the weapons are all still there, and even pariah states like North Korea have working weapons. While those states remain somewhat rational, we're probably fine, but the stakes are pretty high.
Another possibility is simple overheating. Here I'm not exactly talking about Global Warming as caused by carbon emissions, but actual generation of heat by releasing it through energy production as waste heat. Solar energy doesn't help us with this because increased capture of solar radiation will increase waste heat on Earth. Eventually, carbon dioxide or not, we might simply add more waste heat to the planet than the Earth can actually radiate out into space. In that sense, I am very much a believer in AGW, although that scenario is probably more remote in time than a CO2 based greenhouse effect. Eventually, the Earth will need a giant heat sink if we want modern civilization for ever increasing numbers of people.