By Rob Waugh
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'Dark matter' - the mysterious substance thought to 'glue' the universe together - might not exist, throwing current theories of the universe into chaos.
'Dark matter' is thought to make up around 83% of the universe by mass - and to 'hold together' galaxies - but a scan of 400 stars near our Sun found no trace of it.
The study, using the La Silla telescope in Chile, is the biggest of its type ever conducted.
Dark matter is thought to make up 83% of the mass of the universe - but a recent survey found no trace of it, deepening the mystery of what our universe is actually made of
The La Silla telescope: The telescope (which is a fork mounted Ritchey-Chretien) was built by Zeiss and has been in use at La Silla since 1984
Dozens of scientific projects on Earth are searching for dark matter, many using detectors buried deep under ground in mines - but the Chilean scientists say they are unlikely to find it.
The most accurate study so far of the motions of stars in the Milky Way has found no evidence for dark matter in a large volume around the Sun.
A team using the MPG/ESO 2.2-meter telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory, along with other telescopes, has mapped the motions of more than 400 stars up to 13,000 light-years from the Sun.
From this new data they have calculated the mass of material in the vicinity of the Sun, in a volume four times larger than ever considered before.
‘The amount of mass that we derive matches very well with what we see -- stars, dust and gas -- in the region around the Sun,’ says team leader Christian Moni Bidin, of the Universidad de Concepcion, Chile.
‘But this leaves no room for the extra material -- dark matter -- that we were expecting. Our calculations show that it should have shown up very clearly in our measurements. But it was just not there!’
Blue filaments weave in and out of a nebula: Dark matter is thought to form a 'halo' around galaxies, and to 'structure' many objects in space
‘Despite the new results, the Milky Way certainly rotates much faster than the visible matter alone can account for. So, if dark matter is not present where we expected it, a new solution for the missing mass problem must be found.'
Our results contradict the currently accepted models. The mystery of dark matter has just become even more mysterious. Future surveys, such as the ESA Gaia mission, will be crucial to move beyond this point.’ concludes Christian Moni Bidin.
Dark matter is a mysterious substance that cannot be seen, but shows itself by its gravitational attraction for the material around it.
This extra ingredient in the cosmos was originally suggested to explain why the outer parts of galaxies, including our own Milky Way, rotated so quickly, but dark matter now also forms an essential component of theories of how galaxies formed and evolved.
Today it is widely accepted that this dark component constitutes about the 80% of the mass in the universe, despite the fact that it has resisted all attempts to clarify its nature, which remains obscure. All attempts so far to detect dark matter in laboratories on Earth have failed.
Bvery carefully measuring the motions of many stars, particularly those away from the plane of the Milky Way, the team could work backwards to deduce how much matter is present. The motions are a result of the mutual gravi tational attraction of all the material, whether normal matter such as stars, or dark matter.
Astronomers’ existing models of how galaxies form and rotate suggest that the Milky Way is surrounded by a halo of dark matter. They are not able to precisely predict what shape this halo takes, but they do expect to find significant amounts in the region around the Sun.
But only very unlikely shapes for the dark matter halo -- such as a highly elongated form -- can explain the lack of dark matter uncovered in the new study.
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Matter can be seen as stored energy (like a battery) . . . dark matter then is the same as dark energy . . . energy is a force . . . and dark energy - a force of darkness? . . . and the vacuum of space? . . . denial is not just a sphinx in Egypt.
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Deuteronomy 29:29 The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law. - Biblical Scholar, UK, 23/4/2012 14:28 **************** It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live, remember that. - Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.
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Well science is full of dead ends. Fortunately scientists can admit when something they believe in proves wrong and start again. Otherwise we'd still think the world was flat and still believe in mystical gods. - Geoff, Southampton, Hants., 23/4/2012 12:05 .......... Flat! Flat!, of course the world is flat If it was round we would all fall off and all the oceans couldn't stay there. and if you go past Bermuda at the edge of our flat world you will fall into a triangular oblivion. The world or earth as we scientists call it or even P3 is a four dimensional isotropic flat hollow object that appears spheroidal in shape to the naked eye. Before anyone accuses me of making all this up this remember one thing ......I didn't start it......
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So all their calculations about the mass of the universe come spectacularly short, so rather than revisit their calculations, they say the remaining 83% must be some unmeasurable 'dark matter'. Then they wonder why they can't find it!
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I feel really insecure now I have been told that 83% of the universe does not exist or is lost. Yes there is something missing ok but it is a bit closer to home than they think.
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There goes their precious big bang "theory". For the theory to be true, matter should have spreaded out evenly, which is why they hypothesised dark matter. Now they know dark matter doesn't exist, the big bang is a big dud (even though some of us already knew this). Creationism is the true account of how the universe was made.
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Inventing stuff you can't detect and measure is simply fooling yourself. - Dr EVil, Evil Towers, 23/4/2012 12:22 ********************************************* Tell this to Democritus and Leucippus who proposed that matter was made up of tiny, indivisible particles they called atom, tell this to Adams , an English astronomer and mathematician who was the first person to predict the position of a planetary mass beyond Uranus,tell this to Mendeleev, who made pretty accurate predictions about elements not discovered yet. The list goes on...
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Dark matter was a fudge. But what holds the galaxy together?
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Deuteronomy 29:29 The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.
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God has perplexed these scientists again. When will they learn.
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