Survey Finds No Hint of Dark Matter Near Solar System 125
Eponymous Hero writes "Does dark matter exist or doesn't it? It seems these results don't shed as much light as we'd hoped. 'Moni Bidin says he's not sure whether dark matter exists or not. But he says that his team's survey (PDF) is the most comprehensive of its type ever done, and the puzzling results must be reckoned with. "We don't have a good comprehension of what is going on," he says.' This has the smell of a Neutrinogate scandal, but at least we've been warned about the shoulder shrugging. 'As an example, Newberg notes that the researchers assumed that the group of stars they examined were smoothly distributed above and below the plane of the Milky Way. But if the distribution turns out to be lumpier, as is the case for stars in the outer parts of the galaxy, then the resulting calculations of dark matter density could be incorrect. Flynn agrees that there are a number of ways that the method employed by Moni Bidin and his co-authors "could get it wrong."'"
Re:Of course it exists (Score:5, Insightful)
We have seen its effect on the solar system but I don't think we have any really evidence for what exactly Dark Matter is?
Is it matter? is it particles?
We have theories on what Dark Matter is, but those theories could be completely wrong.
So dark matter, as we know it, might not exist, all we know is that something is causing the effects that we see.
Re:Of course it exists (Score:5, Insightful)
We have so much evidence about the existence of the dark matter that's not even funny: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_matter#Observational_evidence [wikipedia.org]
All indirect evidence. Personally the idea of an invisible, intangible, ethereal magical material that helps peoples sums add up is dubious at best. There are plenty of other good theories out there that do not include this populistic hypothesis.
such as http://www.springerlink.com/content/g332701735121773/ [springerlink.com]
Re:I'm not surprised (Score:5, Insightful)
I understand that saying "we don't know what dark matter is" is unsatisfying, but some particles don't interact much with other particles. Neutrinos are a great example, since they only take part in the weak force and gravity (so not the electromagnetic or strong forces). Is it so hard to believe that some matter interacts solely through the gravitational force? That would mean no electromagnetic effects and almost no interactions with other forms of matter. Such matter would only be noticeable at gravity-dominated, cosmological scales.
Who knows? Maybe there's a whole segment of matter humans are unfamiliar with which interacts very little with the matter we know about but interacts with itself in complicated ways. Maybe there are dark matter solar systems populated by dark matter people who are just as confused as we are about the weird gravitational anomalies caused by our otherwise invisible existence. Communicating through gravity would certainly be an interesting challenge! I don't really believe this, but my point is basically the same as Hamlet's: "There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy"--that is, it's arrogant to expect humans to be in a position to observe all the parts of the universe. Perhaps some things are just hidden.
Re:Of course it exists (Score:4, Insightful)
No.
There is an effect. This is known, Dark Matter is the name for that effect until it is solved.
The name is a place holder, not the effect. We measure and predict the effect. Something is impacting large bodies. We don't know what.
It's like hears a loud banging on your wall, You know something is there, you just don't know what until you figure out a way to look.
Religion has names for things that they can't show evidence for.
It's depressing... (Score:5, Insightful)
In other words, gravitational lensing of light waves - which is 100% direct evidence of matter - shows a region where there is matter that is clearly non-baryonic (i.e. does not interact with the electromagnetic field, a.k.a. "dark"). This is not subject to dispute. The question of what, exactly, is dark matter - is indeed still a subject of scientific research. There are, however, a number of super-symmetric theories which posit super-partners for well known particles, the most stable of which turn out to have the exact characteristics we're noting observationally. It is important to note that these theories were not tailored to account for the dark matter, but seem to fit the observational evidence quite well so far. As with all science however, theories are subject to falsification at any times as soon as new evidence comes on the scene.
Re:Of course it exists (Score:4, Insightful)
There's this problem that we think we know the number of baryons that existed in the first few nano-seconds, because of the cosmic abundance of Helium and Lithium. Black holes aren't particular about not swallowing baryons (in fact, they rather prefer to), so this causes problems. If Dark Matter is matter, it must be non-baryonic matter, or we need to redo LOTS of calculations...which is going to mean a major theoretical shift, and nobody has come up with a reasonable theory to shift to. It's much easier if it's not matter at all, but some other effect. (Maybe gravity interacts with gravitational fields at long distances?) Otherwise Dark Matter needs to be non-baryonic matter, and then you've still got Dark Energy to explain.
Re:Of course it exists (Score:5, Insightful)
So, it could be that the laws of physics are slightly off, and Dark Matter is just an illusion we "see" because of the errors in physics.
Or Dark Matter could be actual matter, and is just ... dark.