Space Observatory May Have Found Dark Matter 145
KentuckyFC writes to mention that new data from the orbiting observatory PAMELA may shed some additional light on the question of dark matter. Still only a preliminary announcement, the new findings apparently support the "Minimal Dark Matter" model, in which a particle called a "Wino" is responsible.
Dark? Pls explain (Score:5, Interesting)
Back when I was in particle physics, we would pronounce "wino" to rhyme with neutrino, but we would still snicker about it.
Re:Again? (Score:5, Interesting)
Galactic clusters do not appear to have enough mass to account for their speeds. Similarly, Galactic rotation curves flatten out as if galaxies were shaped spherical balls, even though we can see they are discs. The very first thing that astronomers reached for to explain these phenomena was as yet unseen, or "dark" matter.
Personally (I am a lay person astronomically), I think Dark Matter raises more questions than it answers. While I acknowledge the effort, time and rigor that many astrophysicists have put into studying these phenomena, I still feel that dark matter, a substance which is invisible, intangible, and undetectable expect through its gravitational effects is too far of a step for physics to take without more evidence. I feel as a theory, dark matter is only a stepping stone on the way to a better explanation for what we are observing.
I think the theory has fed off its own inertia. While "Dark Matter" was proposed in the 1930's by Zwicky, he meant it only in the classical sense, i.e. dust, dim stars, etc. The dark matter we hear about today seems to be a product of the 1970s, and is I think a result of the influx of particle physicists into the discipline of cosmology beginning in that period. The particle physics community has had a history of success using assumptions and models that are counterintuitive and often bizarre. The idea we hear most of today of more "exotic" and inscrutable dark matter stems I think from this camp.
The proposal of alternative theories has also ironically lead to wider acceptance of dark matter. By proposing alternatives, sides and factions were created, as will always happen among groups of people when topics are in dispute. When a theory like MOND fails in a particular case, this has the effect of strengthening confidence in the Dark Matter model, even though it should do nothing of the sort. Only sold predictions which emerge from a model should inspire confidence in it, and despite all the fanfare, we have no way of measuring dark matter, even indirectly. The distribution of the dark matter "halos" or spheres, is still an unknown, and some galaxies do not appear to need dark matter at all.
All that said, Feynman's rebuttal still applies. The laws of nature do not have to be philosophically pleasing to us. The universe does not exist for our mental gratification. It can be as strange as it wants to be, and if we don't like it, that's out tough luck. So if dark matter makes predictions, and they fit the data we see, then it is a good model no matter how strange its premises.
All that said, at this time I would bet on a better theory emerging at some later date. Exotic matter, while it may work in subatomic circles, will not I think stand up to scrutiny in the macroscopic domain.
Re:Again? (Score:2, Interesting)
Personally (I am a lay person astronomically), I think Dark Matter raises more questions than it answers. While I acknowledge the effort, time and rigor that many astrophysicists have put into studying these phenomena, I still feel that dark matter, a substance which is invisible, intangible, and undetectable expect through its gravitational effects is too far of a step for physics to take without more evidence. I feel as a theory, dark matter is only a stepping stone on the way to a better explanation for what we are observing.
That certainly is the nightmare version of Dark Matter. However, most (if not all?) dark matter models do not in fact propose (other than gravitationally) noninteracting particles. They certainly must interact very weak with each other and ordinary matter but not per se not at all.
Dark Matter models make in fact verifiable predictions, such as annihilation products and rates (positrons in this case). They are valid science!
Re:Not wholly kosher (Score:3, Interesting)
Not everyone thinks that way. Some of us think that publicly presented information is fair game. And just because I have not spent the necessary effort to develop exact memory does not mean I cannot augment it with a device.
Furthermore, the whole point of doing science is that others can verify your claims by experiment or derivation. That this also leads to finding other people you can discuss your results with (let alone ecstatic enough to write a paper based on a snapshot) is a big bonus.