Do you believe there's dark galaxies in our universe?

Question

They are said to contain a large amount of mass that rotates like a galaxy, but contains no stars. Without stars to give light, it can only be found using radio telescopes. Could there also be planets in these dark galaxies that might contain some kind of life?

Answer 1

I haven't heard of these before, interesting theory. They possible could be out there. However, I highly doubt any planet could support life without a star nearby. But I guess even that's possible...

Answer 2

Yes, though "dark" is somewhat relative. Visible light is just a very small part of the electromagnetic spectrum, and is easily obscurable. In fact, very often times, when you look at pictures of the milky way, the black areas you see aren't black because no stars are there, they're black because dust is obscuring the stars.

That being said, I see no reason why there couldn't be "dead" galaxies and "dead" planets orbiting "dead" solar systems. If you want to know if life can exist on a planet without a living star, the answer would be a maybe. It's not implausible that a planet could stay warm enough in certain areas to support microbial life forms.

Answer 3

First off, I think the operative word in dark matter is "dark." We really don't know diddly about it. One dark matter theory assumes that the "matter" is non-baryonic (does not react with normal matter, i.e., protons, electrons, photons, etc.), so I don't see how a radio telescope could detect it. Dark matter is suspected, however, by its gravitational effect on the motion of stars in other (nearby) galaxies. Galaxies are said to be surrounded by a "dark matter halo." To try to answer your question, though, I would say that if "stuff" existed within dark matter, it would be non-baryonic and by definition invisible since it does not react with light or anything else that exists in our "real" world. So, if life exists elsewhere, it could in theory also exist in another dimension with different laws of physics from ours. However, as far as we can tell with our current technology, our laws of physics (and relativity) hold true for anywhere in the universe. If we focus on the probabilities, though, I'd say it's very probable that there are many, many earth-like planets in just our own galaxy. And our next door neighbor galaxy, the Andromeda, has twice as many stars. Location, location, location!

Answer 4

Hi,

Planets too give of light I think. Just thinking!
Earth is a planet, and gives of light... So if they have life - then they must be living in dark if everything is black!

Karl
http://laserhair.toplaserhairremovaltips.com/

Answer 5

Yea, I think it's possible. Remember that 80% of the universe contains dark matter and dark energy, which are things that we cannot understand yet.

Answer 6

They are out there. The influence of their gravity can be seen on other objects.

Answer 7

i think so

Answer 8

sure