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Dark Matter

Posted: Thu Mar 18, 2010 2:06 pm
by touchingcloth
Had an interesting discussion with some colleagues at work today about dark matter/energy. Not exactly a topic relating to "God & Science", but it fits here better than any of the other sub-boards so just tossing it out there as a conversation topic!

Re: Dark Matter

Posted: Thu Mar 18, 2010 3:36 pm
by DannyM
touchingcloth wrote:Had an interesting discussion with some colleagues at work today about dark matter/energy. Not exactly a topic relating to "God & Science", but it fits here better than any of the other sub-boards so just tossing it out there as a conversation topic!
TC, is "everything" in the universe obsevable? In other words, is the whole universe obsevable?

Re: Dark Matter

Posted: Thu Mar 18, 2010 4:17 pm
by touchingcloth
DannyM wrote:
touchingcloth wrote:Had an interesting discussion with some colleagues at work today about dark matter/energy. Not exactly a topic relating to "God & Science", but it fits here better than any of the other sub-boards so just tossing it out there as a conversation topic!
TC, is "everything" in the universe obsevable? In other words, is the whole universe obsevable?
Depends what you mean by observable, I guess.

Was disappointed that my colleagues were dismissive of DM mainly due to them seeing it as a fudge factor to fix anomalous calculations. They didn't seem to get my point that either there is some exotic matter that is heavy but otherwise inert out there, or our entire understanding of gravity is flawed...& either situation is exciting!

Re: Dark Matter

Posted: Thu Mar 18, 2010 4:32 pm
by DannyM
touchingcloth wrote:
DannyM wrote:
touchingcloth wrote:Had an interesting discussion with some colleagues at work today about dark matter/energy. Not exactly a topic relating to "God & Science", but it fits here better than any of the other sub-boards so just tossing it out there as a conversation topic!
TC, is "everything" in the universe obsevable? In other words, is the whole universe obsevable?
Depends what you mean by observable, I guess.

Was disappointed that my colleagues were dismissive of DM mainly due to them seeing it as a fudge factor to fix anomalous calculations. They didn't seem to get my point that either there is some exotic matter that is heavy but otherwise inert out there, or our entire understanding of gravity is flawed...& either situation is exciting!
Well, I've heard that the universe is very far from being fully observable. This is from NASA:

<<We know how much dark energy there is because we know how it affects the Universe's expansion. Other than that, it is a complete mystery. But it is an important mystery. It turns out that roughly 70% of the Universe is dark energy.

Dark matter makes up about 25%. The rest - everything on Earth, everything ever observed with all of our instruments, all normal matter - adds up to less than 5% of the Universe. Come to think of it, maybe it shouldn't be called "normal" matter at all, since it is such a small fraction of the Universe.>>

http://nasascience.nasa.gov/astrophysic ... ark-energy

It seems to me to be pretty odd that these calculations can be made IF we are far from observing every corner of the universe...?? I also found the article interesting in that it suggests that what we call "normal" matter is in fact anything BUT the norm...

Whaddaya think? Is this your field TC?

Re: Dark Matter

Posted: Thu Mar 18, 2010 4:38 pm
by touchingcloth
DannyM wrote: It seems to me to be pretty odd that these calculations can be made IF we are far from observing every corner of the universe...?? I also found the article interesting in that it suggests that what we call "normal" matter is in fact anything BUT the norm...

Whaddaya think? Is this your field TC?
I know - mental to think that not even 10% of the stuff in the universe is what we would tend to think of as matter. I guess that's the bias of our experiences coming in to play, like how we Northern-Hemisperites tend to think of anything in the southern hemisphere as being "down"...

Re: Dark Matter

Posted: Thu Mar 18, 2010 9:12 pm
by Gman
All I know about dark matter is that it is very dark... How dark? Pitch black dark... ;)

Image

So there...

Re: Dark Matter

Posted: Tue Mar 30, 2010 1:43 pm
by ManOfScience
The LHC crossed beams at 7 TeV (3.5 TeV each) today. All four (main) experiments reported seeing collisions. Maybe we'll soon have evidence of the supersymmetric particles that are thought to make up dark matter. :eugeek:

Re: Dark Matter

Posted: Fri Apr 02, 2010 5:31 pm
by dayage
Here is a video of evidence of dark matter from 2007:
http://www.space.com/common/media/video ... tter&mode=
and and article about the same study:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn1 ... -time.html

Re: Dark Matter

Posted: Mon Apr 26, 2010 3:21 am
by Enginseer
Strongly doubt anyone here has the knowledge or intelligence to talk about Dark Matter, including myself.

Re: Dark Matter

Posted: Mon Apr 26, 2010 4:12 am
by Silvertusk
Evidence of Dark matter and Energy supports the Bug Bang Theory and that is ok by me. I believe it is the substance which God used to stretch out the universe.

Silvertusk.

Re: Dark Matter

Posted: Mon Apr 26, 2010 7:53 am
by Enginseer
Silvertusk wrote:Evidence of Dark matter and Energy supports the Bug Bang Theory and that is ok by me. I believe it is the substance which God used to stretch out the universe.

Silvertusk.
Atheists cannot use science to disprove God. Evolution and the Big Bang Theory dis-credits Creation Theory, yet it does not rule out the existence of god in any way, shape or form.

Re: Dark Matter

Posted: Mon Apr 26, 2010 11:30 am
by Gman
Enginseer wrote:
Silvertusk wrote:Evidence of Dark matter and Energy supports the Bug Bang Theory and that is ok by me. I believe it is the substance which God used to stretch out the universe.

Silvertusk.
Atheists cannot use science to disprove God. Evolution and the Big Bang Theory dis-credits Creation Theory, yet it does not rule out the existence of god in any way, shape or form.
Atheists use science to disprove God all the time. Technically you really can't divorce philosophy out of science. At some point they will collide..

Re: Dark Matter

Posted: Mon Apr 26, 2010 11:55 am
by RickD
Enginseer wrote:
Silvertusk wrote:Evidence of Dark matter and Energy supports the Bug Bang Theory and that is ok by me. I believe it is the substance which God used to stretch out the universe.

Silvertusk.
Atheists cannot use science to disprove God. Evolution and the Big Bang Theory dis-credits Creation Theory, yet it does not rule out the existence of god in any way, shape or form.
I'm not sure what you mean here. The Big Bang Theory is a part of some Creation theories. I don't see how if it is a part, it would discredit it. Many Old Earth Creationists believe in the Big Bang.

Re: Dark Matter

Posted: Mon Apr 26, 2010 3:55 pm
by dayage
RickD is right. Old-earth creation has the Big Bang as part of it. Both the Bible and the big bang say that there is a beginning of matter, energy, space and time. Both agree that the universe is expanding.

Maybe you can tell us where you see a problem.

Re: Dark Matter

Posted: Mon Apr 26, 2010 5:08 pm
by Gman
Rick IS right... On top of that, the Big Bang theory was first started by a creationist...