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I haven't been following cosmology very closely in a while; could someone update my knowledge a bit? * The only evidence for dark matter is that galaxies and g
by mcguire 5y ago
I haven't been following cosmology very closely in a while; could someone update my knowledge a bit?
* The only evidence for dark matter is that galaxies and galactic clusters are moving faster than they should be; i.e. they are acting like there is more gravitational mass around.
* The only evidence for dark energy is that the redshift of distant objects is higher than it should be; i.e. they seem to be accelerating away rather than decelerating.
* All of the other properties of dark matter and dark energy are negative: we have not been able to observe anything, so we know what it's not.
- nerfhammer 5y agoI believe another piece of evidence is there is more gravitational lensing than expected in various places
- jasonwatkinspdx 5y ago> The only evidence for dark matter is that galaxies and galactic clusters are moving faster than they should be; i.e. they are acting like there is more gravitational mass around. There's more than that: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_matter#Observational_evidence https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_matter#Observational_evid... Likewise for dark energy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_energy#Evidence_of_existence https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_energy#Evidence_of_existe...
- mcguire 5y agoThanks!
- skohan 5y agoI'm pretty far from this stuff, so I am sure the people studying it know far more than I do. However when I read about dark matter/energy, and quantum physics, it sometimes reminds me of stories of the geocentric model, where the scientists of the day derived this incredibly complex clockwork geometry of the solar system, to account for the strange curves the other planets seemed to take to cross the night's sky. I wonder if we're similarly missing a key insight which will make these "strange results" fall into place. On the other hand, it's entirely possible that we've just reached the limits of what can be found intuitive to our primitive ape brains.
- isaiahg 5y agoIn the present it seems like we've discovered so much but modern science is still such a young concept in the timeline of humanity. I'd wager we still have many wrong answers and much of how the universe works is still undiscovered