is it actually confirmed that dark matter exists now?

Question

On that note I am trying to explain to my husband the theory of dark matter with out using calculus and can't quite get the concept across to him. Any suggestions

Answer 1

Actually, we know that "dark matter" exists. We just don't know what it is; hence "dark matter". Astronomers and physicists have known for quite some times that there simply isn't enough ordinary matter (that is stuff made of atoms like you and me, the Eath, our Sun, stars and galaxies) to explain what we're seeing in the Universe. It turns out that ordinary matter only make up about 4% of the Universe's energy/matter content, while "dark matter" make up 22%, and the rest of 74% is called "dark energy" (again, we have no idea of what it is; hence "dark energy"). Of course, we have some theories about what these "dark matter" are. You can read more about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_matter

Yes, there were some confusion as to whether gravity is the source of strange behaviors of distant stellar objects, but most scientists pretty much dismisses the idea that gravity, a very well understood physical phenomenon, is the reason. Dark matter really does exists, we just need to figure out what it is. Here are 2 articles, one dated 8/22/2006 and another dated 8/25/2006 that talks about this: http://today.slac.stanford.edu/feature/darkmatter.asp
http://physicsweb.org/articles/news/10/8/17

Answer 2

No, the existence of dark matter is still up for debate. But now scientists have raw data from watching the movement of stars in distant galaxies. The movement observed does not fit the current model of our understanding of gravity and how stars should move around a galaxy. The scientists who collected this data are interpreting these unusual movements they observed as a result of dark matter's affect on the stars. This may be true, but years worth of intelligent debate and evidence scrutiny must be done before this hypothesis can be confirmed.

In fact, debate already exists among other scientists who feel the cause of these unusual movements of stars is nothing more than our inability to totally understand gravity. These opposing scientists believe that it is not dark matter which would cause the stars to behave this way, but a naturally occurring property of gravity which we as of yet do not understand because it may be a property that only happens in the far depths of space. Essentially, they argue gravity does not have to behave the same everywhere in the universe.

So expect that over the next few years (more likely decades) that much more research and activity will yield more evidence, more hypotheses, and even more debate over the existence or non-existence of dark matter.

Answer 3

You don't need calculus to explain dark matter. You do need to understand the idea that gravity clumps matter together and slows down the expansion of the universe, and that we can observe matter which radiates via telescopes. It had been inferred from data that there must be some matter in the universe that did not radiate to account for the current cosmological mass distribution.

The recent data uses weak gravitational lensing (an effect from Einstein's general relativity) to show that the gravitational potential (in other words, the center of mass) for a merging galaxy cluster is in a different place from the observed matter.

The paper is here: http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0608407
The right-most plot in figure 2 demonstrates the effect -- the peaks in the contour plot showing the deduced masses are well-displaced from the colors indicating what is actually seen by the Chandra X-ray telescope.

I found this evidence to be quite convincing.

Answer 4

Recent (as in published about a week ago) evidence suggest that dark matter really does exist. Here's a good page that explains a lot about dark matter and why we think it's there and what this new observation adds:
http://cosmicvariance.com/2006/08/21/dark-matter-exists/

Answer 5

The theory has been solidified, but unfortunately their is still no way to "prove" that it exists. Our current capabilities of measuring have no way of locating it. Right now they have proven it's existence through actions of material near it, not actually observing it directly. It's considerably better than this example, but the idea is sound: It's like saying there is a boogeyman because the closet door opened a crack. While the boogeyman didn't come out to be seen, he must be what opened the door.

Answer 6

Dark matter was indirectly finally discovered much like black holes have been indirectly discovered. A white paper is currently being circulated among the scientific community for their perusal and critique.

Answer 7

Yes, it is big news that dark matter does exsist. As with everything I take
it with a grain of salt, meaning someone will disprove it tomorrow.

Answer 8

curiously, God likes to create very perplexing concerns to exhibit His Glory and countless potential. Why won't He achieve this if all He has to do is talk them into existence? in case you may snap your hands and distinction all the automobiles on the planet to run on water without air pollution, does no longer you? How approximately merely getting the equivalent mileage as a bumblebee it relatively is waiting to experience a million miles on a gallon of nectar? Who created the bee? The human innovations is a methods harder than the entertainment of the universe mixed. evaluate there are approximately 6 billion human beings on the planet, each and each with approximately a hundred trillion very much perplexing cells of their our bodies, the physique creates billions of contemporary cells in many situations occurring, and has 3 billion pairs of DNA....the technique wherein our eyes and innovations "see" demands thousands of electric powered and chemical conversions to take area each and each minute, all the blood vessels in the physique, if laid out end to end, ought to stretch international 2 situations over...60,000 miles. yet our striking our bodies maximum respected incorporate around 3.00 worth of chemical aspects and minerals. God's handiwork is marvelous! interior the centuries before than scanning electron microscopes, human beings could see the excellent thing approximately God's production in the stars....they in many situations even if can see plenty greater in the present day. The Bible says the stars are greater beneficial multiple than all the sand on the planet. dark subject count number and tool seem to be God's physique of innovations of protecting the universe from collapsing on itself. If galaxies are moving clean of each and every and each diverse and earth, why are no longer additionally they increasing as solid? And why do all of them seem to be moving clean of earth...is earth the middle of production?