Great balls of fire

Wraith

Active Member
Don't worry though, it's not close :D
Linky

Only thing that confuses me is that dark matter was twice mentioned as a definite but I was under the impression that it's not been proven yet? Good article otherwise though.

Wraith
 

MadGinga

In Cryo Sleep
Wraith said:
Only thing that confuses me is that dark matter was twice mentioned as a definite but I was under the impression that it's not been proven yet?
Wraith

Ah ha! This sounds like a problem for a Master of Physics. (That?s me btw ;) )

Dark matter is inferred to exist from the velocity of rotation curves of galaxies, measure from the light emitted. If dark matter didn?t exist/wasn?t present then the velocity of rotation would start to fall at high radii from the galactic cores, but this is not observed, and therefore there must be some form of matter surrounding the galaxies to account for this. This is dark matter.

Although dark matter is known to exist, and a few things are known about it (i.e. it?s temperature), it hasn't yet been directly observed, hence why its called dark matter.
 

Wraith

Active Member
MadGinga said:
Ah ha! This sounds like a problem for a Master of Physics. (That?s me btw ;) )

Dark matter is inferred to exist from the velocity of rotation curves of galaxies, measure from the light emitted. If dark matter didn?t exist/wasn?t present then the velocity of rotation would start to fall at high radii from the galactic cores, but this is not observed, and therefore there must be some form of matter surrounding the galaxies to account for this. This is dark matter.

Although dark matter is known to exist, and a few things are known about it (i.e. it?s temperature), it hasn't yet been directly observed, hence why its called dark matter.

I see. That clears it up quite well. It was the "inferred to exist" that lead me to think it wasn't proven yet. So what you're basically saying is "we know it exists but can't bloody well find it yet" (reminds me of bigfoot/ loch ness monster a little :p )

Thanks for the info.

Wraith
 
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