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Possible evidence of dark matter discovered

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  • Possible evidence of dark matter discovered

    I am a bit skeptical, but this deserves 6.0 out of 10.0

    Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/15/dark-matter-signal_n_6316174.html?ir=Science



    Dark Matter Signal May Have Been Found In Mysterious X-Ray Data
    After a decades-long search, astronomers may finally have found the first sign of dark matter. That's the invisible substance that scientists believe makes up the bulk of our universe, since visible matter accounts for only about 20 percent of our universe by weight.

    While scientists can observe dark matter indirectly by looking at its gravitational effects on visible matter, they have struggled to come up with tangible evidence that proves the stuff exists--until now.

    This week, a team of researchers from Switzerland and the Netherlands announced that they may have detected the signal of decaying dark matter particles.

    For the research, the team analyzed the x-rays emitted from two celestial objects: the Perseus galaxy cluster, an array of galaxies located approximately 250 million light years from Earth, and our "sister" galaxy Andromeda, which is approximately 2.5 million light years away. The researchers looked at data collected by the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton telescope and spotted a mysterious "anomaly" that could not have been emitted by any known atom or particle.

    The same strange x-ray spike was also detected by a research team at Harvard in June, who announced they had spotted the emission in data from 70 different galaxy clusters.

    © Copyright Original Source

    Glendower: I can call spirits from the vasty deep.
    Hotspur: Why, so can I, or so can any man;
    But will they come when you do call for them? Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part 1, Act III:

    go with the flow the river knows . . .

    Frank

    I do not know, therefore everything is in pencil.

  • #2
    I think that dark matter is the ether of the 21st century. It will take another Einstein to make it go away.

    Comment


    • #3
      After a decades-long search, astronomers may finally have found the first sign of dark matter. That's the invisible substance that scientists believe makes up the bulk of our universe, since visible matter accounts for only about 20 percent of our universe by weight.
      Now, generally the "standard model" is used, which says:

      According to the Planck mission team, and based on the standard model of cosmology, the total mass–energy of the known universe contains 4.9% ordinary matter, 26.8% dark matter and 68.3% dark energy. Thus, dark matter is estimated to constitute 84.5% of the total matter in the universe, while dark energy plus dark matter constitute 95.1% of the total content of the universe.
      Saying that "visible matter accounts for only about 20 percent of our universe by weight" is really confusing. Weight is a measure of response within a gravitational field, whereas mass is an intrinsic quality regardless of any gravitational field. And dark energy has mass (remember E=Mc^2?). So visible matter is only at most about 5% of the mass in the universe.

      I'm guessing that what this article is trying to say is that there is an estimated 5 times as much dark matter as visible matter in the universe.

      Comment


      • #4
        Originally posted by phank View Post
        Now, generally the "standard model" is used, which says:



        Saying that "visible matter accounts for only about 20 percent of our universe by weight" is really confusing. Weight is a measure of response within a gravitational field, whereas mass is an intrinsic quality regardless of any gravitational field. And dark energy has mass (remember E=Mc^2?). So visible matter is only at most about 5% of the mass in the universe.

        I'm guessing that what this article is trying to say is that there is an estimated 5 times as much dark matter as visible matter in the universe.
        Your more correct. It is not the original research publication. It is a layman's article.

        Explanation here from the article:

        Source: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/742.html


        Science Objectives for Everyone
        Stars, planets and the molecules that make them are only about five percent of the total mass in the universe — the rest is either dark matter or dark energy, but no one has ever seen this material or been able to study it. What’s more, the Big Bang theory holds that the universe should be made of equal parts matter and antimatter, but scientists have never detected naturally occurring antimatter. The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer - 02 looks for evidence of these mysterious substances, along with very high-energy radiation coming from distant stars that could harm crewmembers traveling to Mars.

        © Copyright Original Source

        Last edited by shunyadragon; 12-17-2014, 06:16 PM.
        Glendower: I can call spirits from the vasty deep.
        Hotspur: Why, so can I, or so can any man;
        But will they come when you do call for them? Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part 1, Act III:

        go with the flow the river knows . . .

        Frank

        I do not know, therefore everything is in pencil.

        Comment


        • #5
          More detail I believe on the same thing. This is better then the Huffington Post

          Source: http://www.sciencetimes.com/articles/1959/20141215/eons-after-the-big-bang-and-80-years-after-it-was-proposed-dark-matter-takes-form-in-andromeda.htm



          Eons After the Big Bang, and 80 Years After It Was Proposed, Dark Matter Takes Form in Andromeda

          For decades now, researchers have long believed that the ever-elusive dark matter has comprised roughly 80 percent of the entire universe's mass. But in spite of advancing technology, taking astronomers past the moon to far off comets/planets and back, researchers have not yet been able to identify the existence of dark matter in our galaxy or any other, and have not yet been able to isolate the hypothetical invisible particles in Earth labs either. But in what appears to be a strange X-ray emission from nearby galactic clusters, two independent European research teams believe that they may have found the first true dark matter known to man-and it's not too far away either.

          Originally suggested as a proposed hypothesis to best explain why outer parts of galaxies rotate faster than their dense cores, dark matter now is considered a significant component of theories on galactic formations and their evolution over the eons. Today, researchers estimate that dark matter may indeed constitute nearly 80 percent of the mass in the Universe, in spite of the fact that it has never been physically found in nature.


          But in a recent turn of events, collaborating astrophysicists have been able to isolate the strange particle. Researchers from Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne Laboratory of Particle Physics and Cosmology and Leiden University, have analyzed distinct emissions emanating from the Andromeda and Perseus galaxy clusters and discovered that unique x-ray signatures may in fact be the elusive dark matter they can't see in the shroud of space.

          The x-ray observations were made possible by the European Space Agency's orbiting XMM-Newton telescope, which not only captured the data from the gleaming galaxies, but also helped astronomers remove all interference signals from known sources and particles, leaving only the x-ray/dark matter emissions in the end.

          "Above all, the signal's distribution corresponds exactly to what we were expecting with dark matter, that is, concentrated and intense in the center of objects and weaker and diffuse on the edges," teammember Dr. Oleg Ruchayskiy with the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne in Switzerland, says. "If the discovery is confirmed, it will open up new avenues of research in particle physics. Apart from that, it could usher in a new era in astronomy."

          And while the jury is still out on whether or not the signature proves dark matter exists, the researchers hope that similar indications within our very own Milky Way galaxy may give them more opportunities to define the strange emissions.

          © Copyright Original Source

          Glendower: I can call spirits from the vasty deep.
          Hotspur: Why, so can I, or so can any man;
          But will they come when you do call for them? Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part 1, Act III:

          go with the flow the river knows . . .

          Frank

          I do not know, therefore everything is in pencil.

          Comment

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