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Bill307
Canada9103 Posts
Article: NASA Finds Direct Proof of Dark Matter
Background: in brief, dark matter is some kind of matter out in space that we cannot see. Even though we cannot see it, we know that it must exist because of its gravitational effects on other things.
For example, we have observed that stars (like our sun and solar system) orbiting the centre of a galaxy (like our own Milky Way galaxy) orbit a LOT faster than we'd expect. One possible explanation is that our theory of gravity is wrong, and doesn't work on large scales like the orbit of stars around the centre of a galaxy, or galaxies orbiting around the centre of a galaxy cluster. Another explanation is that there is a LOT of extra mass that we simply have not seen or detected yet. How much is "a LOT"? Well, one cluster of galaxies called the Coma Cluster has ~400 times as much mass as we can see. We refer to this extra mass as dark matter.
Dark Matter is likely a combination of many things, but we don't know what. Black holes are definitely one contributor, but there are probably others as well. For example, one exotic possibilitiy is that there is some new, almost totally undetectable form of matter that we have never seen before, and this invisible matter is responsible for much of the extra mass that we cannot see.
For more detailed and precise information, see Wikipedia's entry on Dark Matter.
Explanation of the Evidence: look at the first picture in the article above. Click on the link that says "Press Image and Caption" right below it. This gives a good explanation of the picture and how it proves the existence of dark matter. Another explanation can be found on Wikipedia's entry on the Bullet Cluster.
I found this sentence (from the "Press Image and Caption" link) to be particularly interesting (emphasis mine):
Most of the matter in the clusters (blue) is clearly separate from the normal matter (pink), giving direct evidence that nearly all of the matter in the clusters is dark.
So, in conclusion, we may not know what the dark matter is made of, but at least we have reaffirmed the correctness of our theory and understanding of gravity works  .
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WOW THIS IS SO FUCKING AWESOME !! THIS IS SO COOL THAT I DONT KNOW WHAT IM GONNA DO NEXT. WOW.
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dope. a lot of physicists will cry themselves to sleep tonight.
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great post! i heard about this stuff but never saw an explanation or knew what it really was
thanks!
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Wow, what a great find, Bill. I'm not a physicist, but I've done enough applied maths to appreciate how important this is.
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4492 Posts
That's a pretty great step. The practical applications might be much more exciting tho :o
Too many gray areas, it was time at least one of them was cleared up.
-Mynock
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can some one explain how this find will benefit anything practical -.-.
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On August 21 2006 19:29 haduken wrote:
can some one explain how this find will benefit anything practical -.-.
word.
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Bill307
Canada9103 Posts
On August 21 2006 19:21 {ToT}Strafe wrote:
WOW THIS IS SO FUCKING AWESOME !! THIS IS SO COOL THAT I DONT KNOW WHAT IM GONNA DO NEXT. WOW.
It's a simple rule that you don't run around posting "I don't care" in topics that don't interest you. You've been here how long and yet you still can't do this one simple thing?
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Can someone explain why everything has to have an immediate, practical, application?
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Bill307
Canada9103 Posts
On August 21 2006 19:29 haduken wrote:
can some one explain how this find will benefit anything practical -.-.
Nope. It's common for things to happen in science and math that have no practical application at the time they're discovered, yet become crucially important later on, e.g. complex numbers.
So I'm confident it will have practical benefits. We just can't explain them to you because we don't know what they will be.
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G. H. Hardy, a very brilliant and well-known mathematician was quoted as saying:
"I have never done anything 'useful'. No discovery of mine has made, or is likely to make, directly or indirectly, for good or ill, the least difference to the amenity of the world."
However, since his time pure mathematics has found many practical applications in cryptography (elliptic curves, number theory etc.).
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Bill, you should know Strafe's sole purpose here is to troll.
;p
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while the discovering of dark matter might not directly do much, such as bottling it and selling it at the grocery store, expanding our minds and learning for the sake of learning is why we are where we are today. For instance, spending half a trillion dollars on sending a man to mars is a complete waste of time and resources, but if we were to accomplish this i cant help but imagine the incidental benefits which would automatically unfold unto our society. We create advanced rockets which are useless except for short distance space travel (relatively speaking), and a guy stands around stomping his feet into red dirt. Yet our collective minds rejoice in the idea, kids seek interest in higher education, the sciences flourish, and some guy makes a car that runs on nothing. Spending our time educating ourselves in anything usually has some benefit here or there.
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4492 Posts
Strafe does it right. Writes a trolling post that took him 7 secs to conjure up and gets some 10 or so replies that actually try to explain it to him  .
That's why I have all-caps posts on auto-ignore.
-Mynock
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United Kingdom10597 Posts
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On August 21 2006 19:29 haduken wrote:
can some one explain how this find will benefit anything practical -.-.
Can someone explain how a 5 month old is of any practical benefit?
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Wtf is wrong with you, I was being super duper enthousiastic about dark invisible stuff, why is that a problem for you?
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intrigue
Washington, D.C9935 Posts
On August 21 2006 19:51 NewbSaibot wrote:
while the discovering of dark matter might not directly do much, such as bottling it and selling it at the grocery store, expanding our minds and learning for the sake of learning is why we are where we are today. For instance, spending half a trillion dollars on sending a man to mars is a complete waste of time and resources, but if we were to accomplish this i cant help but imagine the incidental benefits which would automatically unfold unto our society. We create advanced rockets which are useless except for short distance space travel (relatively speaking), and a guy stands around stomping his feet into red dirt. Yet our collective minds rejoice in the idea, kids seek interest in higher education, the sciences flourish, and some guy makes a car that runs on nothing. Spending our time educating ourselves in anything usually has some benefit here or there.
=)
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Korea (South)11596 Posts
wait wtf gravity is not what really what we thought?
WTF I'm going to finally jump off of a cliff without a parachute now that I know gravity is different! WOOT!
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EPT
