Posted on 12/29/2008 2:46:01 PM PST by NormsRevenge
For the past quarter century, dark matter has been a mystery we've just had to live with. But the time may be getting close when science can finally unveil what this befuddling stuff is that makes up most of the matter in the universe.
Dark matter can't be seen. Nobody even knows what it is. But it must be there, because without it galaxies would fly apart.
Upcoming experiments on Earth such as the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) particle accelerator in Switzerland, and a new spacecraft called Gaia set to launch in 2011, could be the key to closing the case on one of the biggest unsolved mysteries in science.
A disturbing truth is accepted by most astronomers: There is a lot more stuff in the universe than what we can see. Scientists now think visible matter — all the planets, stars, and galaxies that shine down on us — represents only about 4 percent of the mass-energy budget of the universe, while dark matter and its even more esoteric cousin, dark energy, make up the rest.
"There is no consensus actually at all as to what dark matter is," said Gerard Gilmore, an astronomer at the University of Cambridge who wrote a recent essay for the Dec. 5 issue of the journal Science about the search for dark matter.
A leading hypothesis posits that dark matter is composed of some kind of exotic particle, yet to be detected, that doesn't interact with light, so we can't see it.
One such theorized class of particles is called WIMPs (Weakly interacting massive particles), which are thought to be neutral in charge and weigh more than 100 times the mass of a proton.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
This August 2008 image taken by the Hubble Space Telescope and Chandra X-ray Observatory show a clear separation between dark and ordinary matter during a clash 5.7 billion light years from Earth. Mysterious "dark energy" works simultaneously to expand the universe and shrink objects inside it, astronomers in the United States said Tuesday. (AFP/NASA/File)
The Hubble Space Telescope has spied the most distant supernova ever, an 11-billion-year-old exploding star whose existence suggests that a repulsive 'dark energy' is spurring the expansion of the universe. Astronomers saw the supernova in 1997 but did not know until recently that it was the furthest and therefore the oldest of its kind ever observed, scientists said April 2, 2001 in a briefing at NASA headquarters. (NASA NASA/Reuters)
Dark matter called WIMP.
Must. Control. Urge. To. Post. Obama. Pic.
bump for later read
LHC is European. Gaia is European.
Any American equipment (other than the Hubble) involved in this?
I know there are a lot of American physicists working at the LHC so I guess it doesn’t matter.
Just curious.
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