Computer Model Points To the Missing Matter

eldavojohn writes "There exists a little-known problem of missing regular matter that has perhaps been overshadowed by the mysteries of dark matter and dark energy. Computer models show that there should be about 40% more regular matter than we see... so where is it? From the article: 'The study indicated a significant portion of the gas is in the filaments — which connect galaxy clusters — hidden from direct observation in enormous gas clouds in intergalactic space known as the Warm-Hot Intergalactic Medium, or WHIM, said CU-Boulder Professor Jack Burns... The team performed one of the largest cosmological supercomputer simulations ever, cramming 2.5 percent of the visible universe inside a computer to model a region more than 1.5 billion light-years across.' This hypothesis will be investigated and hopefully proved/disproved when telescopes are completed in Chile and the Antarctic. The paper will be up for review in this week's edition of the the Astrophysical Journal."

Re:missing matter != dark matter?

[belthize]

    Dark Matter is matter that's not made up of normal baryonic material. As a matter of fact you can detect it but not enough to matter.

    Over and above the missing 'dark matter' there's the matter of the missing regular matter.

    It's the missing regular matter that matters in this case.

Belthize

Computer model?

[phatvw]

I reckon this is a wee bit offtopic, but it struck me - are there any scientific models that are not "computer models"? It used to be the case that if it was a computer model, you'd think, "Ooooh they are using computers, they must be smart". But now?

This stuff is absolutely fascinating. Good stuff from Colorado as always.

Re:Not Dark Matter

[fnordboy]

That's not correct. The article discusses matter that should be there as pointed out by the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedmann_equations/ [wikipedia.org]Friedmann equations and similar equations that describe the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmic_microwave_background_radiation [wikipedia.org] cosmic microwave background. The Dirac equation doesn't say anything about the composition of the universe.

Re:Not Dark Matter

[scapermoya]

i think with the current evidence, it is safe to say that most dark matter is strictly non-baryonic (the mass we are used to). there is no doubt, however, that dust and other baryonic matter in all kinds of forms (clouds of gas, dwarf stars, planets, you name it) contribute to dark matter. what we must quibble about now is the amounts, the proportions.

by the way, dust doesn't just spontaneously emit radio waves. if that were true, all the dust on our planet would likely make radio stations impossible. there are plenty of places dust could be where it doesn't reflect light, or emit radiation due to absorption. in fact, dust contributes more to our inability to see our whole galaxy than anything else.