Re: Galactic pancake mystery solved


"Tim Killian" <TJK@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:_fSdndamwukWQ8ffRVn-hw@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Confucius said "It is difficult to catch a black cat in a dark room,
> especially if no cat is there."

But if you are in a dark room and it suddenly smells of elderflower, you
might suspect that there is a cat in there with you.

> Dark matter "exists" primarily because it fills an open spot in a
> mathematical equation for curvature. There is no physical basis for it
> at all. None. IMO, it is Confucius' black cat in the dark room we call
> modern cosmology.

Dark matter is a name for a 'possible' explanation for 2 well observed
phenomena.

One is the 70 year old knowledge that the observed stellar and
gas'n'dust contents of galaxies does not match the rotation curve
according to gravitational theory

The second observation is the more recent observation that gravitational
lensing analysis seems to indicate that within a cluster of galaxies,
there is a general distribution of mass through the whole extent of the
cluster, not just in the galaxy bits.

There are two possible implications of these observations - either

1 - there is some component of mass that hangs around with galaxies and
clusters of galaxies that we are are not able to observe
or
2 - there is a flaw in the theory of gravity, which changes the way it
works on the scale of galaxies and above.

In terms of the work of theoretical and experimental scientists it's
important to find out more, and that is what's being done. In terms of
what's needed to 'explain' the phenomena, it's useful to to know if
option 1, 'missing mass' is sufficient to explain the observations.
There are also Earth based experiements to try and detect some of the
candidate 'missing mass' particles.

There are also theoretical and experimental studies taking place to
determine if option 2 , 'missing force' is a feasible theory.

> Our fixation on the big bang has distorted science to the point that
> alternate theories are ridiculed, good scientists are cowed into
> supporting the consensus view, and bizarre contrivances like inflation
> and dark matter/energy are given legitimacy far beyond any evidence to
> support them.
>

Alternative theories have to explain all 'well known' bits of the
picture as well as the bits that the 'standard theory' has problems
with.


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