Posted on 07/07/2009 1:06:35 PM PDT by LibWhacker
Did dark matter destroy the universe? You might be looking around at the way things "exist" and thinking "No", but we're talking about ancient history. Three hundred million years after the start of the universe, things had finally cooled down enough to form hydrogen atoms out of all the protons and electrons that were zipping around - only to have them all ripped up again around the one billion year mark. Why?
Most believe that the first quasars, active galaxies whose central black holes are the cosmic-ray equivalent of a firehose, provided the breakup energy, but some Fermilab scientists have another idea. Dan Hooper and Alexander Belikov posit that invisible, self-destructing dark matter may have blown up every atom in the universe. At least it's plausible in that if we wanted to ionize an entire universe, we'd want something that sounded that awesome.
Dark matter is a candidate for providing ionizing radiation because, if it exists at all, it's its own antiparticle: if two dark matter particles hit each other they can blow up. Insane as it sounds, the theory predicts that despite making up most of everything the particles themselves are so tiny, and so terribly fussy about colliding, that they can form huge structures without destroying themselves. Positron emissions which may be an indication of exactly this kind of self-destruction have been observed by the European PAMELA satellite currently orbiting the Earth.
As theories go, this one is more awesome than accepted. The quasar hypothesis has wide support, and crediting something we've never even seen with reshaping the universe may be going a little far. Then again, that's what modern cosmology is doing with dark matter anyway, so maybe this idea will fit right in.
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Do you think it represents a danger to THIS Universe? "
Well...it wouldn't have if you hadn't pumped it into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue this past January.
What a candy store. Dark matter, alternate universes, you could almost make anything fit when you allow everything.
“...looks like it, smells like it, tastes like it...good thing we didn’t step in it...”
Yet another casualty of Dark Matter.
Such things will be prevented when the theoretical particle cap and trade legistation goes into effect.
Would you like to buy some of my theoretical particle credits?
Sign me up.
LOL... the last sentence of this article is absolutely the most true thing I’ve ever seen about the dark matter hypothesis.
There is a theory which states that if anyone figures out what the universe is for, and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizzarely inexplicable.
There is another theory which states this has already happened.
- Douglas Adams, H2G2
Did you know that the first Matrix was designed to be a perfect human world? Where none suffered, where everyone would be happy. It was a disaster. No one would accept the program. Entire crops were lost. Some believed we lacked the programming language to describe your perfect world. But I believe that, as a species, human beings define their reality through suffering and misery. The perfect world was a dream that your primitive cerebrum kept trying to wake up from. Which is why the Matrix was redesigned to this: the peak of your civilization.
- Agent Smith, The Matrix
Sure, but I would never be able to find those big bags of wintergreen Lifesavers when I needed one.
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