Question about Dark Matter/ Speed of Light?

Question

I have read time and again that the speed of light is the maximum speed limit of the universe. In our limited understanding of the universe, is it possible that dark matter exists beyond the speed of light and therefore is "dark?"

I am a novice but I do understand many of the Scientific Theories (big T!) out there. This would make sense as to why it is dark. Could we be wrong about the speed of light? Is it just another barrier like the speed of sound once was?

MJR

I meant that we couldn't see it because it was traveling faster than light therefore light could not reflect off of it.

As for the energy thing, this prompted my question:
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/070613_tw_gamma_burst.html

Light particles travel that quickly...

Gravity: I think that pulsars are part and parcel of large galaxy systems (speculation based on observation). Every aspect of our universe : atoms, cells, planetary systems, solar systems, galaxies, all have a nucleus that drives them or is the center of their being.

Why not galaxies? And I get this from Einstein.

Answer 1

Einsteins theories of relativity have been tested and confirmed many times while the actual existence of dark matter has not been held up to the same scrutiny.

Still, assuming dark matter exists, the basic idea is that it simply does not interact with other matter under the strong, weak or electromagnetic forces, much in the same way that neutrinos don't.

Answer 2

Remember, darkness is not a "thing" that exists like light does, darkness is the absense of light. You wouldn't say that antarctica is faster than the speed of heat, would you? sort of the same thing.

It is called dark matter not because it is actually painted black, but because we have no means of observing it. The only reason we have any reason to suspect dark matter exists is because the apparent weight of galaxies (adding up stars, gasses, etc) does not generate enough gravity to keep them together in their current form; galaxies should just fly apart like a clump of sand dropped in water. So scientists speculate that there must be "something" out there that is making the galaxies heavy enough to become bound gravitationally. And we call that Dark Matter. For all we know, it could just be a type of particle we haven't discovered yet. Could be neutrinos. Some scientists speculate that dark matter doesn't even exist, and the errors in our calculations stems from an incomplete understanding of gravity. Some suspect that on a large enough scale, classical physics breaks down, the way it does on the sub-atomic level (the study of physics at that level is called Quantum Mechanics, and it is radically different from everything we know about physics.)

And unfortunately for us would be space explorers, the speed of light is the big speed limit of the universe. Nothing can go faster than light, and I will explain why. To accelerate anything with mass, you need more energy. It takes your car more fuel to drive at 80 miles per hour than it does to drive it at 40 miles per hour. You start getting into speeds that are fractions of the speed of light, and the amount of energy that it would take you to accelerate the mass starts increasing exponentially. To accelerate a spaceship to close to the speed of light would take more energy than is currently available in the universe. To accelerate any mass TO the speed of light would require infinite energy, thus is logically impossible.

Current speculations for going faster than light involve not actually accelerating in real time.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faster_than_light

Answer 3

No. The average speed of Dark Matter particles is around 800 kilometers per second. This is the typical random velocity achieved by Dark Matter when it falls into a "Dark Matter Halo", which is a gravitational well formed by Dark Matter. Galaxies form inside Dark Matter Halos, and so their properties are well understood from studies of dynamics of galaxies (a whole graduate-level astronomy course and too much to get into here).

This relatively low average velocity for Dark Matter is why the dark matter is called "Cold", as in "We live in a Lambda-Cold-Dark-Matter Universe."

Dark Matter is dark because it does not interact strongly with electromagnetic radiation, per unit mass. This is not a very stringent constraint however. Dark Matter could be made of bricks (i.e. stones about 200 mm in diameter) except that:
1) we don't know how those stones could be made and
2) bricks or stones are made of baryons, and there cannot be that many baryons in the Universe, or early nucleosynthesis (He and Li production in the first few minutes) would be badly off.

Answer 4

The discovery of "dark matter" and "dark energy" is arguably the most important scientific breakthrough of the last 50 years.

But, first, you have to figure out what "dark matter" and "dark energy" are. So far, we know only that it causes the expansion of the universe to speed up.

We call it dark because we don't directly see it. So we haven't much of a clue what it is or composed of. It has nothing to do with the speed at which it might travel.

We have good reason to believe that "dark energy" makes up about two thirds of the universe. For that reason, it is essential that we come to understand the natures of "dark matter" and "dark energy" if we are to understand the nature of the universe.

All of our theories about the universe are about to see an overhaul, as we study this new area of physics.

Answer 5

dark matter has not been proven. it is a result of measuring the gravity of the know universe, and estimating how much mass is in it. When astronomers do this, the counted mass accounts for about 10% of the measured gravity.

therefor scientists suppose there is much more more than we can see. it has however not yet been detected. it has only be concluded by deduction.

asfar as i know the maximum speed of light (in a vacuum) is the maximum speed in the universe. this is indeed the work of einstein, and as far as i know, it has not yet been disproven.

theoretically.
if any matter would be traveling fasterthan the speed of light, it would only be dark viewed from the direction its traveling in. As with an airplane traveling faster than sound, an enormous boom of sound (or in our case light) would be visible at the backside of the traveling object.

Answer 6

The membrane-matrix of our universe may be a grid of tiny tunnels in which the superstrings and other particles travel. It exists everywhere. Because this network does not interact with photons it appears 'dark.' Because it interacts with gravity, it appears to be 'matter.'

The speed of light is just that--the max. speed for light.

Shortly after the Big Bang when the space-time "mesh" inflated, it did expland faster-than-light. (Like the release of a giant squeezed sponge?)

Answer 7

Greetings!

Firstly, as you might guess from recent concessions made by Hawkings, we really do not fully understand speed in a vacuum.
Thus when you think in terms of the speed of light, look at it as thought it were miles per hour. For example I am going 60 miles an hour, or say 60 times the speed of light. It is then but a benchmark we create to try to understand the speed or motion of one object versus another existing in a medium for which we posses no practical knowledge.

Good Luck

Answer 8

In our universe nothing can travel faster than the speed of light but Einstein's theories allow for a universe where every thing, tachyons, travel faster than light and it is impassible to go slower than that. Amazing,no?

Answer 9

this is only a partial answer to your question. i don't know enough about dark matter to give you the best answer on it. as far as the speed of light though, in theory, speed is limitless. you could go beyond it. the thing is that einstein did work it out, E=mc2. it means that as you go faster, you gain more mass. as you approach the speed of light, you would be taking on the mass of the universe.

Answer 10

there no proof of dark matter. but don't worry nothing is impossible