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Finally, we have possible hints of Dark Matter! We may be able to silence skeptics once and for all with this data that may have a few percent chance of being d

Finally, we have possible hints of Dark Matter! We may be able to silence skeptics once and for all with this data that may have a few percent chance of being defining proof of Dark Matter. Or maybe it's axions! Either way, tens of thousands of physicists, astronomers and cosmologists will be relieved they may have not wasted their entire professional careers.

Avshalom 4y ago
I know that a combination of second-option-bias and someone-is-wrong-on-the-internet might make it seem like dark matter is an all consuming concern in physics but in the real world even most astrophysics people don't give much of a shit or bump up against it in their work.
- Maursault 4y ago
  The problem is Dark Matter, without any proof it exists, was elevated into the cosmological paradigm, taken for granted that it exists, when it may very well not exist. As part of the paradigm, it is incredibly difficult to remove. Someone could have figured out what the missing mass was 15 years ago, or that there was no missing mass - eliminating the need for Dark Matter - yet Dark Matter could continue remain part of the established paradigm for 50 more years or longer. Paradigmatic criteria should at the very least include positive proof of existence, saving the effort wasted in teaching, discussing and testing for something that never existed, as proving it doesn't exist is much more difficult if not impossible even if it doesn't exist, which I personally think is a pretty good bet at this point.
DFHippie 4y ago
> Dark Matter. Or maybe it's axions! This would be proof that dark matter, or at least some of it, is axions.
layer8 4y ago
Few cosmologists doubt that dark matter exists. It’s quite well established that it does (multiple independent sources of evidence), we just don’t know what exactly it consists of. What this gamma-ray burst possibly hints at is that it might be axions.

Avshalom 4y ago

I know that a combination of second-option-bias and someone-is-wrong-on-the-internet might make it seem like dark matter is an all consuming concern in physics but in the real world even most astrophysics people don't give much of a shit or bump up against it in their work.

Maursault 4y ago
The problem is Dark Matter, without any proof it exists, was elevated into the cosmological paradigm, taken for granted that it exists, when it may very well not exist. As part of the paradigm, it is incredibly difficult to remove. Someone could have figured out what the missing mass was 15 years ago, or that there was no missing mass - eliminating the need for Dark Matter - yet Dark Matter could continue remain part of the established paradigm for 50 more years or longer. Paradigmatic criteria should at the very least include positive proof of existence, saving the effort wasted in teaching, discussing and testing for something that never existed, as proving it doesn't exist is much more difficult if not impossible even if it doesn't exist, which I personally think is a pretty good bet at this point.

DFHippie 4y ago

> Dark Matter. Or maybe it's axions! This would be proof that dark matter, or at least some of it, is axions.

layer8 4y ago

Few cosmologists doubt that dark matter exists. It’s quite well established that it does (multiple independent sources of evidence), we just don’t know what exactly it consists of. What this gamma-ray burst possibly hints at is that it might be axions.