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Yeah this comment is posted whenever dark matter comes up. I'm a similar novice and I feel the same way. However, I also know that the experts out there don't s

by Aachen 5y ago

Yeah this comment is posted whenever dark matter comes up. I'm a similar novice and I feel the same way. However, I also know that the experts out there don't say this for no reason and that, even if "dark matter" just a construct/illusion that turns out to be something else (not a new kind of matter), it can still be a useful placeholder to work with (like how we still model gravity as a force). Dismissing it as an incorrect measurement ignores the depth people have long gone into to verify this discrepancy between predictions and reality is not a sensor problem.

jrm4 5y ago
Yep, there's probably a big difference in how real scientists talk about it vs. what we end up seeing in casual magazines, etc.
bostonsre 5y ago
I kind of had the same intuition as the op, but you are most likely correct. A lot of ridiculously smart people all seem to think it's out there somewhere. Are there any popular theories that posit that gravity behaves differently at these large scales? Or are all the smart people in the same camp of the being dark matter somewhere?
- hnuser123456 5y ago
  Yes, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modified_Newtonian_dynamics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modified_Newtonian_dynamics
nodja 5y ago
Another novice here, but every time the matter of dark matter comes up I remember this story. Almost 2 centuries ago astronomers found that the orbit of Mercury didn't make sense according to Newton's laws, laws which were at the time considered infallible. The astronomers only explanation was that there was a planet closer to the sun that we couldn't see, they believed this so much that they even named the planet Vulcan and spent many years searching for it. Turns out that there was no Vulcan and general relativity explains the discrepancy in the orbit of Mercury. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vulcan_(hypothetical_planet) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vulcan_(hypothetical_planet)
- wongarsu 5y ago
  Another important part of the story is that a central figure in this was Urbain Le Verrier, who just a couple of years earlier had predicted the orbit of a planet based on the orbit of Uranus being a bit weird. That planet was found and named Neptune. That discovery made both Le Verrier and the world at large very excited, and the race to repeat that feat lead to everyone jumping to conclusions about Vulcan. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discovery_of_Neptune https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discovery_of_Neptune
- gpderetta 5y ago
  Sometimes you look for a missing planet (Vulcan) and turns out the theory is wrong. Sometimes you look for a missing particle to carry away momentum and indeed it is there (the Neutrino).

by Aachen 5y ago

jrm4 5y ago

Yep, there's probably a big difference in how real scientists talk about it vs. what we end up seeing in casual magazines, etc.

bostonsre 5y ago

I kind of had the same intuition as the op, but you are most likely correct. A lot of ridiculously smart people all seem to think it's out there somewhere. Are there any popular theories that posit that gravity behaves differently at these large scales? Or are all the smart people in the same camp of the being dark matter somewhere?

hnuser123456 5y ago
Yes, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modified_Newtonian_dynamics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modified_Newtonian_dynamics

nodja 5y ago

Another novice here, but every time the matter of dark matter comes up I remember this story. Almost 2 centuries ago astronomers found that the orbit of Mercury didn't make sense according to Newton's laws, laws which were at the time considered infallible. The astronomers only explanation was that there was a planet closer to the sun that we couldn't see, they believed this so much that they even named the planet Vulcan and spent many years searching for it. Turns out that there was no Vulcan and general relativity explains the discrepancy in the orbit of Mercury. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vulcan_(hypothetical_planet) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vulcan_(hypothetical_planet)

wongarsu 5y ago
Another important part of the story is that a central figure in this was Urbain Le Verrier, who just a couple of years earlier had predicted the orbit of a planet based on the orbit of Uranus being a bit weird. That planet was found and named Neptune. That discovery made both Le Verrier and the world at large very excited, and the race to repeat that feat lead to everyone jumping to conclusions about Vulcan. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discovery_of_Neptune https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discovery_of_Neptune
gpderetta 5y ago
Sometimes you look for a missing planet (Vulcan) and turns out the theory is wrong. Sometimes you look for a missing particle to carry away momentum and indeed it is there (the Neutrino).