Consider this for an argument: You can’t define something you can’t observe. Therefore, and for no other stated reason, you will find it. To thematically paraphrase Jim Morrison, you’d get thrown out of seminary school for an argument like that. This just happens to be the very lengthy argument regarding finding dark matter.
I’ve had the dubious honor of listening to omniscient idiots for many years. The sole functional statement above is that you can’t observe it whatever it is. You can’t observe dark matter directly. Much like just about everything else science didn’t know a damn thing about until hit over the head with them …Like the entirety of the extra visual electromagnetic spectrum,
Better still, you have to infer the existence of dark matter. A lot of people don’t believe dark matter exists for that and other reasons.
Dark matter is supposed to have mass, according to the core theory. This is implied by the fact that galaxies seem to have less mass than they should and their behavior is affected by something which must have mass. This theory is not much helped by incessant inaccurate calculations of the mass of normal matter.
There’s another somewhat obvious issue. According to CERN, dark matter does not interact with electromagnetic force. It doesn’t reflect big butch things like light. Ah… So maybe it has nothing to do with electromagnetic phenomena, and is simply a different type of energy or matter? In which case, how does it “explain” the missing mass of the universe?
Generally speaking, if you can’t see something, you can measure its actions or non-actions by any effect it causes. If you throw a brick through a window, you can infer the existence of something brick-like. You can also get actual metrics which can be cross-referenced.
You can do the same thing with gravitational effects. X amount of mass must have X amount of effect. That charming but rather gossipy guy Isaac Newton was pretty clear about that.
This situation creates a bit of a quandary. If dark matter exists based on the theory of its effect on a matter/energy spectrum with which it doesn’t interact, what is it doing?
What if it’s simply another unknown form of physics with different energy and matter structures? A non-LEGO brick in the otherwise rather LEGO-like structure of the universe?
What if it’s quantum matter? There has to be some quantum matter somewhere. There should be lots of it. It seems to behave very like quantum matter in terms of being rather shy about being observed.
Then there’s the universe. Yes, that old thing. We happen to have an absolutely humongous mass of normal matter, twisted like a web, interacting with itself. Gigantic galactic clusters, in fact. Or as some wild-eyed cosmologists call them in moments of poetic passion, “them thingsies”.
Any possibilities for monumental gravitational effects there, would you say, me old furniture-nibblers? Do we also have any mass measurements for the vast numbers of black holes we seem to have fluttering so daintily about?
Frankly, I’d leave the words “mass”, “gravity” and similar name-dropping out of the equation. How accurate can they be? For a species that only recently discovered a third of the universe it didn’t even know about, a bit of reticence might be appropriate.
It is, unbelievably, sometimes considered as a scientific principle that you should at least be able to define what you’re talking about in a coherent way. Dark matter, or unknown forms of matter and energy, may well exist for all we know. They almost certainly do.
The lack of measurable and meaningful definitions for dark matter are therefore inexcusable. On what basis does an undefinable subject have its existence?
I would point out that even the idea of an unknown form of matter and energy is far more significant. You may well be looking at an entirely different form of physics.
Whatever it is, if it exists. it’s not normal matter. Would someone kindly condescend to adequately describe it in terms actually useful to physics?
I suggest getting a lot more demanding about terminology at the very least. At this rate, you won’t even be able to describe what you’ve discovered.
While you’re at it, explain that gigantic web of galaxies. It may be relevant to something.
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Disclaimer
The opinions expressed in this Op-Ed are those of the author. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of the Digital Journal or its members.
