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Random facts about dark matter:
— It’s not dark. It’s transparent.
— We’ve never detected it. It may not exist. Maybe our theory of gravity is wrong.
— if real, it’s most of the matter in the universe and
— every galaxy lives in a dark matter bubble we call a dark matter halo
— It’s not dark. It’s transparent.
— We’ve never detected it. It may not exist. Maybe our theory of gravity is wrong.
— if real, it’s most of the matter in the universe and
— every galaxy lives in a dark matter bubble we call a dark matter halo
Good Q. It’s transparent bc from what we can tell, light goes through it. It’s visible to us through its gravitational effects. And some models (like axions, which I work on) also have very mild interactions w/ light under special conditions — we have experiments to test this. https://twitter.com/andrewmckagan/status/1330613984995794945
One way we “see” evidence for dark matter is through a phenomenon called gravitational lensing, which we can actually see in this NASA/ESA image taken with the Hubble Space Telescope. Some of what we see here isn’t real! What?
https://www.nasa.gov/content/hubble-sees-a-smiling-lens
https://www.nasa.gov/content/hubble-sees-a-smiling-lens
When I say some of what we are seeing in this image of galaxy cluster SDSS J1038+4849 isn’t real, I mean the blue arcs are actually distorted images. The distortions are caused by spacetime that is curved by dark matter, making light travel like it hit funhouse mirrors.
In other words, we can indirectly notice the dark matter by noticing the effect it has on light’s trajectory on its way to our telescopes, distorting the images we see.
Do not adjust your telescopes.
The weird smiley face is a great and accurate picture.
It’s just the spacetime lens is distorted by dark matter. https://twitter.com/ibjiyongi/status/1330615540113608709
The weird smiley face is a great and accurate picture.
It’s just the spacetime lens is distorted by dark matter. https://twitter.com/ibjiyongi/status/1330615540113608709
Another good question. Dark matter doesn’t seem to interact on a regular basis with electromagnetic fields at all, so no light whatsoever. That’s why we can’t see it and light seems to go right through it. No refraction or transmission! Transparent like nothing’s there. https://twitter.com/time_is_food/status/1330617073207304197
Another really great question! This is an important and very hot topic of research that I am currently working on because we don’t know. This is known as “the galaxy-halo connection” and I’m lucky enough to be working with @RisaWechsler, one of the world’s leading experts on it! https://twitter.com/peterlikesmath/status/1330615191252455425
Dark matter is a hypothetical particle. Antimatter is real! The electron’s antimatter companion is the positron, which we’ve seen “in the flesh” so to speak.
Most of the time the names are less cool. Like the antimatter proton is called the antiproton. https://twitter.com/iamwhoismoses/status/1330615287960498179
Most of the time the names are less cool. Like the antimatter proton is called the antiproton. https://twitter.com/iamwhoismoses/status/1330615287960498179
We are currently doing direct detection experiments, looking for mild interactions between dark matter and every day matter in controlled conditions. These would produce unique “signatures” that couldn’t be explained with other physics. https://twitter.com/glofkill/status/1330618982609670147
Anyway is a conversation with me complete if I haven’t a. Told you that Mansfield Park is an important commentary on slavery and white feminism and b. Told you that axions, which I work on, are the best dark matter candidate????
A: no
A: no
Axions are awesome because first of all what a great name (although they were almost the Higglet which would have been better) and second of all, we need them to solve a slight theoretical problem with the standard model of particle physics and third of all, they are groovy waves
My book has discussions of the standard model, dark matter, gravitational lensing, stars, axions, cosmic acceleration, melanin, colonialism, & pinkwashing, so if you like this thread, donate to local mutual aid and/or preorder my book, emphasis on AND https://www.boldtypebooks.com/titles/chanda-prescod-weinstein/the-disordered-cosmos/9781541724709/
