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The idea of non-visible matter as a fix for stellar motion dates back to the 19th century, when our knowledge about the cosmos was far more limited (remember, w

by cygx 8y ago

The idea of non-visible matter as a fix for stellar motion dates back to the 19th century, when our knowledge about the cosmos was far more limited (remember, we only learned about other galaxies in the 1920s - it post-dates general relativity!). That the hypothesis is still viable today with our more elaborate understanding of the universe does validate the idea to some degree: Our cosmological models cut have killed it off easily. So unless a better model that works equally well comes along, I see no reason to discard the dark matter hypothesis just yet: The universe has no obligation to be filled with a type of matter detectable with the means of today...

marcosdumay 8y ago
Yes, it dates to the XIX Century, and alternative types of it have been proven right or wrong at times. Postulating unobservable things is still not a good way to do science. The one good thing of the dark matters theories was that physicists were clear in that it's not a done model, just a map of what's wrong with our understanding. This seems to have changed lately.
TangoTrotFox 8y ago
I'd generally agree with you, except for one thing. I'm not sure our models could have killed it off, excepting finding precisely whatever is causing the apparent mass abnormalities throughout the universe. Have you seen those ancient astronomic models used to illustrate a geocentric Earth? The one with the numerous spinning 'petals' surrounding the Earth? It's interesting imagining the amount of work that went into creating such models, constantly adjusting them over and over each time yet another little problem came up. Happily accepting planets just randomly changing direction, with no analog whatsoever anywhere else in nature, and so on. When hypotheses are not falsifiable, they just tend to grow ever more elaborate rather than die. Dark matter started off as literally that - a place holder for bodies that did not significantly radiate. It's slowly changed into becoming the vast majority of all matter in the universe, existing practically everywhere, it can't be baryonic, it interacts with nothing except itself and gravity, there must exist near entirely dark matter galaxies, and so forth. So we're left with this ever evolving hypothesis that can't ever really be falsified and which every test, increasingly clever and precise, we create to detect it -- says it's not there. And it seems that the zeitgeist is starting to increasingly treat dark matter as a fact whose proof is little more than an unscheduled formality. This seems illogical given that we've done more than ever to try to show it exists, and every result is saying - nope. And again this does not mean it does not exist, but each failure makes it more likely that this is the case, and there is an alternative explanation.

by cygx 8y ago

marcosdumay 8y ago

Yes, it dates to the XIX Century, and alternative types of it have been proven right or wrong at times. Postulating unobservable things is still not a good way to do science. The one good thing of the dark matters theories was that physicists were clear in that it's not a done model, just a map of what's wrong with our understanding. This seems to have changed lately.

TangoTrotFox 8y ago

I'd generally agree with you, except for one thing. I'm not sure our models could have killed it off, excepting finding precisely whatever is causing the apparent mass abnormalities throughout the universe. Have you seen those ancient astronomic models used to illustrate a geocentric Earth? The one with the numerous spinning 'petals' surrounding the Earth? It's interesting imagining the amount of work that went into creating such models, constantly adjusting them over and over each time yet another little problem came up. Happily accepting planets just randomly changing direction, with no analog whatsoever anywhere else in nature, and so on. When hypotheses are not falsifiable, they just tend to grow ever more elaborate rather than die. Dark matter started off as literally that - a place holder for bodies that did not significantly radiate. It's slowly changed into becoming the vast majority of all matter in the universe, existing practically everywhere, it can't be baryonic, it interacts with nothing except itself and gravity, there must exist near entirely dark matter galaxies, and so forth. So we're left with this ever evolving hypothesis that can't ever really be falsified and which every test, increasingly clever and precise, we create to detect it -- says it's not there. And it seems that the zeitgeist is starting to increasingly treat dark matter as a fact whose proof is little more than an unscheduled formality. This seems illogical given that we've done more than ever to try to show it exists, and every result is saying - nope. And again this does not mean it does not exist, but each failure makes it more likely that this is the case, and there is an alternative explanation.