We can’t see it or feel it, but it’s really there – and it helps hold galaxies together, astronomers say. Jeff Nesmith, Cox News Service Last update: August 26, 2006 – 11:22 PM
WASHINGTON - Astronomers said last week that they have recorded the first direct observation of the mysterious substance known as “dark matter.“This is really exciting, in my opinion,” said cosmologist Sean Carroll of the University of Chicago. “Once and for all, we can say dark matter does exist.”
Dark matter does not consist of electrons, protons and the other building blocks of ordinary matter. If a “cloud” of dark matter swept through the solar system, for example, it would pass through the Earth, the sun and every other concentration of ordinary matter without “touching” them, theorists said.
But because dark matter doesn’t give off light or absorb light or interact with ordinary matter, it cannot be directly observed.
Astronomers had believed in its existence because ordinary matter does not provide enough gravity to hold galaxies together.
To prove the existence of dark matter, scientists from Harvard University and the University of Arizona used images from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory to photograph two galaxy clusters that appear to have collided at high speed about 100 million years ago.
Enormous clouds of intergalactic gas were heated to nearly unimaginable temperatures by the collision, causing them to give off X-rays, the astronomers said.
Theories suggest that such a collision would act like a filter. The ordinary matter in the galaxy clusters would be slowed down, but the noninteractive dark matter would pass right through, unimpeded.
Sure enough, by analyzing how light from even more distant galaxies was distorted by the collision, the astronomers mapped huge clouds of something that extended past the two clusters on either side.
“Dark matter is the only explanation for the presence of this matter,” said Harvard astrophysicist Maxim Markevitch.” This is the first time we’ve actually seen a separation in space of dark matter and ordinary matter.“Now, we must go out and find out what dark matter is and where it came from and why there’s so much of it,” said Carroll. Carroll said only 5 percent of the universe is made up of ordinary matter. Another 20 percent must be dark matter, and the rest is something even more mysterious called “dark energy,” he said.
Re: Our galaxies,planets,stars are only 5% of whats out there.Fascinating!
lol yeah only God can explain this dark matter cause it defies logic..its mind boggling.it has no electrons, no protons.its a ghost or a spirit or something
Re: Our galaxies,planets,stars are only 5% of whats out there.Fascinating!
"There is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened."
Re: Our galaxies,planets,stars are only 5% of whats out there.Fascinating!
We can't see it or feel it, but it's really there -- and it helps hold galaxies together, astronomers say.
Jeff Nesmith, Cox News Service Last update: August 26, 2006 – 11:22 PM
WASHINGTON - Astronomers said last week that they have recorded the first direct observation of the mysterious substance known as "dark matter."This is really exciting, in my opinion," said cosmologist Sean Carroll of the University of Chicago. "Once and for all, we can say dark matter does exist."
Dark matter does not consist of electrons, protons and the other building blocks of ordinary matter. If a "cloud" of dark matter swept through the solar system, for example, it would pass through the Earth, the sun and every other concentration of ordinary matter without "touching" them, theorists said.
But because dark matter doesn't give off light or absorb light or interact with ordinary matter, it cannot be directly observed.
Astronomers had believed in its existence because ordinary matter does not provide enough gravity to hold galaxies together.
To prove the existence of dark matter, scientists from Harvard University and the University of Arizona used images from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory to photograph two galaxy clusters that appear to have collided at high speed about 100 million years ago.
Enormous clouds of intergalactic gas were heated to nearly unimaginable temperatures by the collision, causing them to give off X-rays, the astronomers said.
Theories suggest that such a collision would act like a filter. The ordinary matter in the galaxy clusters would be slowed down, but the noninteractive dark matter would pass right through, unimpeded.
Sure enough, by analyzing how light from even more distant galaxies was distorted by the collision, the astronomers mapped huge clouds of something that extended past the two clusters on either side.
"Dark matter is the only explanation for the presence of this matter," said Harvard astrophysicist Maxim Markevitch." This is the first time we've actually seen a separation in space of dark matter and ordinary matter."Now, we must go out and find out what dark matter is and where it came from and why there's so much of it," said Carroll. Carroll said only 5 percent of the universe is made up of ordinary matter. Another 20 percent must be dark matter, and the rest is something even more mysterious called "dark energy," he said.
Re: Our galaxies,planets,stars are only 5% of whats out there.Fascinating!
^ ermm.. Yeah NeSCio.
About the dark matter thingy, so many theories can be drawn from this. Not everything in the universe is observable and may be it's not meant to be. The supernatural and more opened part of my brain has a theory for the dark matter and that is this dark matter consists of dark energy released in space through the spirits. May be it's the Almighty's way of keeping the dark forces together and away from the rest of the universe. That's probably the "HEREAFTER" of our lives until the day of resurrection. The more realistic part of my brain thinks that this dark energy accounts for many things such as why the universe keeps expanding and why do things keep changing in the universe. Read about Big Bang nucleosynthesis to understand how it formed.
It is perplexed and that's why you should love it.
