Vera Rubin, Pioneering Astronomer Who Confirmed Existence of Dark Matter, Dies At 88 (www.cbc.ca)

Mikkeles quotes a report from CBC.ca: Vera Rubin, a pioneering astronomer who helped find powerful evidence of dark matter, has died, her son said Monday. She was 88. Vera Rubin found that galaxies don't quite rotate the way they were predicted, and that lent support to the theory that some other force was at work, namely dark matter. Rubin's scientific achievements earned her numerous awards and honors, including a National Medal of Science presented by then-president Bill Clinton in 1993 "for her pioneering research programs in observational cosmology." She also became the second female astronomer to be elected to the National Academy of Sciences.

Comments

Dark Matter is a horrible kludge

[digitalride]

and Rubin wasn't a huge fan of it either:
"If I could have my pick, I would like to learn that Newton's laws must be modified in order to correctly describe gravitational interactions at large distances. That's more appealing than a universe filled with a new kind of sub-nuclear particle."

I have high hopes for this new theory that can account for the galaxy rotation problem ( and the emDrive ): http://physicsfromtheedge.blog...

Re: Dark Matter is a horrible kludge

[xtal]

Science disproves through experiment and fact. Those theories are being experimentally tested, data is being collected, and they are falsifiable. Both are well past the bar for requiring further investigation.

Shame on YOU.

Re:Dark Matter is a horrible kludge

[joao.cordeiro]

When a scientist trusts a theory so much that he stops considering any desagreing theory, he stops being a scientist and becomes a believer.
. When the above happens to a large group of scientists, they become a religion.
When that large group of scientists start perusing other scientists for having diverging theories, ideas, opinions, It becomes an inquisition.

It is ok for you to explain why EmDrive should not work or the mistakes made in EmDrive experiments that would compromise the results.
It is NOT OK fo you to call them "not real scientists".
Doing it the true disgrace here.

Confirmed Existence?

[sexconker]

When exactly did we confirm the existence of dark matter?

Re:Confirmed Existence?

[Dutch Gun]

What are you, a dark matter denier? The science is settled - there's consensus! We should now be turning our attention to finding that dark matter.

Joking aside, Vera Rubin obviously did not confirm the existence of dark matter. That's a terrible headline. She discovered that current mass estimates of the universe could not account for the rotations of galaxies using current models.

Everything beyond that is just a hypotheses, as no hint of "dark matter" has been found. I have a hunch that nothing will continue to be found until scientists figure out that their mass estimates were way off, or that the models were horribly wrong. Scientific "truths" are always getting clobbered by "ridiculous" new ideas, so it could go either way on this, but I'm betting on our lack of understanding rather than an invisible particle making up most of the mass of the universe.

Re:Confirmed Existence?

[Dutch Gun]

You and I must have very different definitions of "hysteria". I was simply trying to clarify the current status of dark matter, so far as a layperson can understand it, as the headline seemed rather misleading. This is still "news for nerds", right? I'd hope we still value scientific accuracy in our science-based articles.

I certainly wasn't trying to denigrate Vera Rubin's contribution to science, the most notable of which was a pretty amazing discovery. Nor will her contribution to science be lessened if the dark matter theory ends up wrong. It was a brilliant observation that no one else made, and it sparked a fascinating line of investigation, to which no one can really will predict exactly what the results will be. In any case, its bound to turn some previously held theories on their heads.

And since you put "joke" in quotes, I'm sorry you didn't find it humorous. You can't please everyone, I guess.

Re:Confirmed Existence?

[Goaway]

MOND is one of the many theories that have tried and failed to explain all the anomalous results we have collected over the years. MOND is basically completely discredited at this point, and dark matter is the most simple and elegant theory we have to explain all the results we have.

Re: An Amazing Human

[lucm]

It's kinda sad, especially since Seinfeld is not even funny. Even in the show named after him he was the least funny character.

Re: An Amazing Human

[haruchai]

And yet there will be fewer posts on here than on the one about the do-nothing space princess.

Carrie Fisher was an author, playwright and script and public speaker on bipolar disorder and substance abuse.
I love that cosmological stuff something fierce but none of it has an immediate impact on my daily life whereas I personally know about a dozen with bipolar & dozens more through them

Re: An Amazing Human

[hey!]

As a rule people who see others responding to X and say, "Well what about Y?" don't give a shit about X or Y.