Intergalactic Missing Mass Missing Again 171
Ponca City, We Love You writes "Researchers at the University Of Alabama In Huntsville have discovered that some x-rays thought to come from intergalactic clouds of 'warm' gas are instead probably caused by lightweight electrons — leaving the mass of the universe as much as ten to 20 percent lighter (in terms of its ordinary matter) than previously calculated. In 2002 the same team reported finding large amounts of extra 'soft' (relatively low-energy) x-rays coming from the vast spaces in the middle of galaxy clusters. Their cumulative mass was thought to account for as much as ten percent of the mass and gravity needed to hold together galaxies, galaxy clusters, and perhaps the universe itself. When the team looked at data from a galaxy cluster in the southern sky, however, they found that energy from those additional soft x-rays doesn't look like it should. 'The best, most logical explanation seems to be that a large fraction of the energy comes from electrons smashing into photons instead of from warm atoms and ions, which would have recognizable spectral emission lines,' said Dr. Max Bonamente. The work was published Oct. 20 in the Astrophysical Journal."
The falloff of light is 1/r^2 (Score:2, Interesting)
But why do we just assume that gravity needs to fall off at the same rate as light?
Re:The falloff of light is 1/r^2 (Score:5, Funny)
That's the magic of Slashdot.
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Re:The falloff of light is 1/r^2 (Score:5, Informative)
As for the person above who mentioned that light might not expand as 1/r^2 outside of a gravity well, the fact is that it doesn't expand at exactly 1/r^2 inside a gravity well. But we 1/r^2 is a good approximation for any gravitational fields near us.
Bias in Physics? (Score:1, Insightful)
Yes, 1/r^2 it works pretty well for relatively short distances but it may not be so for long distances. Which is the reason that some physicists don't think there is any missing mass (dark matter) at all and that both GR and Newtonian physics may need to be revised (GR uses Newton's G). This would create all sorts of problems because it would also bring other matters into question such as the supposed accelerated expansion of the univ
Re:Bias in Physics? (Score:4, Insightful)
"Einstein fanatics"?! "demigod"?! You sound like a crackpot UFO conspiracy theorist. If you think there are flaws with the current models, the only acceptable way to address those concerns is with science. Not ad-hominem attacks against people who are demonstrably smarter and more polite than you.
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By the looks of his sig, his hobby is to say "but what if your most basic, obvious principles are completely wrong?" without offering a better explanation. And without even realizing that people before him (and smarter than him) have asked the same question, and always verified the conventional wisdom. I realize now that he is wholly unconcerned with science, and merely dabbles in pseudo-science and demagoguery pandering towards those even less ed
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Re:Bias in Physics? (Score:5, Insightful)
What's easier to believe - that there's a ton of missing mass out there as "Dark Matter" - something that we have no direct evidence for - or that gravity works differently on large scales than a smoothe 1/r^2 at all distances - and works exactly in the way that we observe? Remember that every time that we've had a strong classical theory replaced by something else, it's been at the extremes of our observation - the very fast for special relativity (which reduces to newtonian motion at lower speeds) and the very small for quantum mechanics. We know we're not getting something right on the large scale, and we know that our picture of gravity is incomplete, as we don't have a good quantum gravitational model.
I don't know, honestly - but it's clear that there's something we don't understand and I think that our human-scale intuition is not well suited for figuring out what explanation is more likely, just as QM and SR aren't very intuitive. Right now, we've got competing models but neither is very satisfactory without more data.
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Science is not based on what's easier to believe.
Puny human! Your intuition is no good to reason with about the very small, very fast etc. Are you a practicing physicist? No? In that case I hope you'll forgive those of us that are willing to take the word of of physicists. And that word is that today GR is the best theory of gravity we have.
To this non-physicist, MOND looks just like string theory -- New! Exciting! but no real predictions, just lots of knobs you can twiddle
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By the way, did I mention my physics degree?
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Re:Bias in Physics? (Score:5, Informative)
Don't be silly. MOND doesn't cover the regime of gravitational time dilation- and is in fact not at odds with GR. MOND and GR cover different regimes, MOND concerns itself with gravitational/inertial interactions at very small accelerations (of less than about 10^-10 m/s^2, ignoring the Hubble constant correction term).
The point is that we have a fundamental choice between believing that there's more mass that we can't detect by EM in the Universe than that which we can detect, or that we're missing a big piece of how gravity (or, if you prefer, inertia) works, or (of course) "something else." And the jury is absolutely still out.
While the physics community certainly favors the dark matter model right now, most will say that the door isn't shut on MOND yet. Dismissing anybody who mentions it as a crank is not reasonable and it's dishonest to try to put a Mr. Physics Authority Figure face on doing so - MOND papers are still published in indiscriminate rags like the Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics and tenure-holding proponents are seen in polite company that would shun cold fusion researchers.
I have no idea how many physics undergrads "really" know GR and QM - I suspect that most probably haven't gotten past the wave equation formulation or even heard of quantum field theory, and might or might not have had to sling a few tensors around in an elective - most probably don't do graduate computational cosmology work, either (even if it was back when having time on a Cray meant something). There's more money in commercial software, though.
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I don't know about nature, but I sure as hell do.
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Yet we have observations that don't fit the theory, both on the small and large scales. The theory is either incomplete, or our observations are incorrect. Seeing as we don't alter empirical data to fit theories, we must alter the theories to fit the empirical data. It is the best theory we have, and still it breaks, so we strive for a new theory to explain all the facts. MOND and string theory are two such theories that make real predict
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So? We know GR is not THE solution; I said it was the best we have. We know it has holes. But GR is not just about gravity; it is about the structure of space-time. Gravity (and lots of other things) fall out of it. MOND is a hack to explain one kind of phenomenon. Of course we need to strive towards a better model of the physical universe than GR+QM, but MOND isn't it. As wikipedia puts it, "MOND is an effective theo
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Google on the Bullet Cluster. Then Google about why MOND-style theories can't explain it without conceding that there must be at least *some* non-visible matter out there.
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MOND is an area of current active research, with papers published in the standard reput
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It's no more Ptolemaic than positing that there's more mass in the Universe that we are not capable of seeing than that which we are - you have to either add mass to the observed universe or add corrections to the equations. And that's the rub, both are really outlandish ways of dealing with observations that don't match our theories. Both should be pursued until we can come up with some predictions that do fit data.
It's not so outlandish to posit "dark matter" as you imply. It is simply that Newton's Laws predict a certain distribution of matter that, apparently, is not luminous. It also must be non-baryonic, which is really interesting.
But MOND is on ever more shaky ground now, especially after the results from the Bullet Cluster last year. Now, one must posit a different MOND for galactic dynamics than that of cluster dynamics. And, most damning of all, the Bullet Cluster reveals that MONDers must not only a
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Fair enough, and I apologize - it's hard to discern tone on a site with people so innumerate that they indignantly caution that mining on the moon might affect tides on the Earth.
Believe you me, I fully understand and identify with that - I think everybody prefer smooth, well behaved functions. It's a very valid question,
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By the way, when did you last attend a university science class?
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I'm pretty sure Einstein didn't dream up special relativity in class. Physics happens outside the classroom, too. In fact, being in the classroom almost prohibits overturning pre-existing science, because you're there to learn, not to make it up as you go along.
Physics happens outside the classroom too.
I mean, depending on your frame of reference and all.
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ahahahaha... You're funny as hell. I can imagine you jumping up and down and foaning at the mouth all over the keyboard when you wrote this. Thanks for the laughs, anonymous dudette. ahahaha... AHAHAHA... ahahaha...
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Boy, this is spoken like someone who is completely disconnected from the academic process. There is no bigger fantasy a 20-something
Re:Bias in Physics? (Score:5, Insightful)
Trying to poke holes in in established theories (also known as conducting experiments and analysing empirical data) is more properly called the scientific method. You make it sound like a bad thing, and that ivory tower guardians of cryptic scrolls are the true scientists. You have it all backwards. Theories shouldn't need propping up, they should stand on their own, and especially stand up to repeated scrutiny and analysis. If we failed to poke holes in established methodology there would be no Newton, no Einstein, no progress to speak of.
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No, not at all. I think you are making the assumption that I mean to say that sharks are bad. Sharks aren't bad, they are sharks. Get it?
The guy I was replying to implied that scientists had a vested interest in propping up the cryptic scrolls. I merely called scientists sharks sniffing for blood, not to make a value judgement, but just as an example of how eager they a
To summarize it another way... (Score:2)
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Newton's Law for gravity specifies it as a 1/r^2 force. *Any* 1/r^2 force will behave the same way.
Do the math. (Score:5, Interesting)
Astrophysics is way beyond getting the growth rate of a fundamental force wrong.
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And yet those same astrophysicists are looking for invisible, super-dense, hugely-interacting material that is everywhere and yet nowhere at all.
Maybe it's GOD!! lol
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Of course, if you modify gravity you still require dark matter. So do you prefer dark matter (some of which has been observed), or modified gravity (which has never been observed) AND dark matter?
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Our models can't accomodate the behavior, so we look to filling in the gaps with a magical substance that can't be seen, felt, or otherwise observed.
I don't understand this at all. Our gravitational models predict the existence of this stuff. It can certainly be "seen" and "observed" by its gravitational interaction with neighboring luminous matter. In what way is it "magical"? It must be non-baryonic, which is interesting, but not really magical. Recent weak-lensing observations are fairly conclusive --- it doesn't only interact to speed up stars in the outskirts of galaxies and influence cluster dynamics, but we can directly see its effect whe
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MOND is NOT a better explanation, it's actually a considerably worse one. Not only does it require dark matter but it ALSO requires gravity to act one way in some circumstances and other ways in others. That's a kluge squared.
Also, dark matter isn't hypothesized to be a magical substance that can't be detected. It's just a substance that doesn't interact electromagnetically, so you can't
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MOND describes one thing (some galactic rotation curves) and completely fails to explain lots of other things that it should (galactic clusters, gravitational lensing mass maps, the Bullet cluster). People talk about MOND as if it solv
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(I'm not familiar with the analogy so that's probably a pretty nasty twist on it)
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Unlikely? Probably. Worth looking into to? I don't know NEARLY enough about physics and the observations that have already been made to make any kind of call on that.
Thought Experiments of 1/r^2 (Score:2)
I think everyone throwing out 1/r^2 needs to really think about what it means. You don't need to be a hyperphysics guy to sort this out. The idea is really simple, is that, if you have a point source of some effect, radiating out equally in all directions, its effect would diminish as to the square of the distance. This "law" is really just a model that's a consequence of two things - one i
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I was writing to be supportive of your post!
Re:The falloff of light is 1/r^2 (Score:4, Interesting)
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That's because the end result will not be the same as you assume. If gravity does not diminish exactly at 1/r^2 over large distances as GR and Newtonian physics assume, it would throw a monkey wrench into everything. It would bring a lot of other issues into question such as
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As for Lensing, what's the problem? If Dark Matter causes additional lensing then so will MOND because it will increase gravity's power slightly. Frame Dragging is a property of Einsteinian gravity if I
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All MOND states (last time I checked) is that gravities falloff rate is slower at long distances.
MOND is weirder than that. Instead of modifying gravity at some length scale as you suggest, MOND makes the gravitational force dependent on a body's acceleration instead of just its position.
MOND's main problems are that (1) it can't account for as many phenomena as can dark matter (it does great on galactic rotation curves but not so great at, say, cosmology), (2) it's hard to make consistent with relativity (Bekenstein has a proposal but it has a number of free parameters that appear to require fine tu
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and the amount of evidence that it's a very close approximation in most situations.
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And it's off by 10 to 20% in a few situations. Are you saying that a good approximation is good enough?
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You mean reduced TO a quarter or reduced by three quarters.
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Try to imagine a universe in which it is not true. What you have observed about light is logically necessary. If you have a quantity of anything, and it "fans out" from a point in all directions, you will find an (maybe we should say THE) inverse square law. Inverse-square laws are logically necessary.
Of course it's true. But if you can't "imagine a universe in which it is not true", you're not trying hard enough. You've apparently never heard of the theory of Intelligent Falling [wikipedia.org].
Your "logical proof" assumes that light and gravitational effects (this applies to both) are in fact things that radiate uniformly from an object. It's an assumption that seems so obvious we may not realize that we're taking it for granted, but it's not something that's provable from first principles (or at least, you haven't g
Happiness is... (Score:5, Funny)
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In fact, the thought that relatively near space is not empty, but filled with electrons, photons and perhaps who knows what else would appear to give credence to the oscillating universe theory instead of the god created everything theory espoused by nearly all my coworkers. Not that this would ever sway any of them...
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Indeed all this "missing mass" issue is, in essence, a modern Ontological Argument [wikipedia.org]
OK... (Score:1)
soo.. (Score:3, Funny)
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Ballpoint pen theory of mass differential (Score:5, Funny)
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Glad to be of service.
Re:Ballpoint pen theory of mass differential (Score:5, Funny)
No, the Dryer/Sofa Correspondence Theorem elegantly shows that the deficit of pens is exactly cancelled out by excess right socks. (And it also demonstrates that contrary to popular urban legend, the supposed "missing" left socks never existed in this universe in the first place.)
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Re:Ballpoint pen theory of mass differential (Score:5, Funny)
But that doesn't explain where all those goddamned clothes hangers come from.
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They must be the adult form of "lost" teaspoons.
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Clothes hangers are the larval form of the fully adult right sock. The amazing life cycle of this organism begins, of course, with the egg—often mistaken for "paper clips". Corpses are indistinguishable from old technical journals.
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uh huh... (Score:3, Insightful)
it's buried under all those lost socks (Score:1)
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Better Explanation (Score:1, Offtopic)
Lighter mass? (Score:2, Funny)
I can understand the universe being lighter, but its mass being lighter?
Now, back to my new computer that has a faster speed yet runs at a colder temperature. I'm going to move its location, which will require a longer length of Ethernet cable. Hopefully this farther distance from the router won't be a problem.
Eureka! (Score:4, Funny)
Of course I'm wrong but hey - this is Slashdot.
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US Consumers Clueless, says Survey (Score:5, Funny)
"A study on consumer perceptions about missing intergalactic mass, undertaken by the Asimov Institute at the University of Phoenix Online and the Speilberg Space Policy Center, found that the average American consumer is largely unaware that some x-rays thought to come from intergalactic clouds of 'warm' gas are instead probably caused by lightweight electrons. Those surveyed showed little knowledge on the extent to which the mass of the universe was previously calculated. More than half of those surveyed -- about 55 percent -- falsely assumed that large amounts of extra 'soft' galaxy clusters were actually a light chocolatey candy.
Dish Maintenance Log (Score:2)
Lost and found (Score:2)
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Huh? (Score:1)
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Sorry, I'm on my break. You'll have to read and misunderstand it yourself.
Diet? (Score:3, Funny)
Dark Matter (Score:1)
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Bohr Atom (Score:3, Funny)
For God's Sake! There really was nothing wrong with Bohr's atom was there?
I'm still trying to explain wave and particle theory to my pug dog, who gazes intently into my eyes!
Now I've got to try and explain electrons that don't 'weigh'(?) as much!
Metaphors-a-Galore (Score:2)
Speaking of which google says proton mass / electron mass = 1,836.15266 so since when did an aircraft carrier weight as much as 1,000 fireflies anyway???
proton mass = 1.67262158 x 10^-27 kilograms
electron mass: 9.10938188 x 10^-31 kilograms
aircraft carrier mass: 9 x 10^7 kg (88,000 metric tons for a big one)
firefly mas
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Matt
An intelligent universe? (Score:2, Insightful)
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The Importance of Intergalactic Mass (Score:3, Funny)
Have You Seen This Matter? (Score:2)
Afraid to trust (Score:2)
A dumb question, but I had to ask.... (Score:2)
Re:high profile buttbuddIE of southern baptist reg (Score:1)
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Intergelatic (Score:4, Funny)