7 ms·
The general vibe is that (1) "dark matter" is absolutely required to explain observed velocity distributions in the universe at every scale larger than a few th
by ajross 2y ago
The general vibe is that (1) "dark matter" is absolutely required to explain observed velocity distributions in the universe at every scale larger than a few thousand stars and (2) nothing we've observed so far can be it. So... sure. Maybe all these ideas are right, though probably not. But something has to be it, so we might as well keep throwing darts until something lands.
- PaulHoule 2y agoIn terms of theory it's easy to believe that the dark matter is a non-interacting particle of some kind such as a WIMP, right-handed neutrino, or axion. The trouble is picking out which one is correct with all of the alternatives. Physics as we know it got started when Newton developed a theory of gravity that explained what happens on the Earth and in the heavens. This success was continued when people linked the results of nuclear experiments to nucleosynthesis in stars and the big bang. Dark matter seems to be AWOL however at the scale of the solar system and smaller so that link is broken right now -- we'd like to be able to observe the dark sector with a big detector, a particle accelerator or an axion telescope but so far we can't.