COTTON THISTLE CLEARANCE
Random musings from the noggin' of Knolltrey
(Best viewed on a monitor running Mozilla Firefox, with a brain running on a case of Grolsh...)
Thursday, 17 January 2008
The Dark Ages of Astronomy?
Mood:  cheeky
Now Playing: Dancing in the Dark by The Boss
Topic: Scientific Progress...

Currently, astronomers and physicists estimate that about, oh, give or take 90-percent of the mass of the universe is made up of invisible, untouchable, undetectable fluff called 'dark matter'...

They've got a new 'map' of its distribution from the Hubble...

According to the theory, this stuff causes ALL of the errors currently seen in their updated theories of General and Special Relativity. It exists not because we can detect it (we can't) or see it (we can't) or touch it (we can't) or smell it (we can't)...

It exists because, when you do complicated calculations involving huge quantities of mass (ie: a galaxy, etc...) and velocity, the numbers always come out kinda wonky...

So, of course, the answer lies not in the incompleteness of our understanding of the universe, but because... well... over 90-percent of the universe is invisible and untouchable...

Right.

Of course, I don't have a PhD in astrophysics or anything, but that sounds an awful lot like saying that the reason a feather flutters in the wind is that a bunch of ghosts (all weighing several hundred pounds) are slapping at it with their hands... or bedsheets, or whatever have you...

My only point is that the concept of Dark Matter should be seen only as a placeholder, not a scapegoat, for the shortcomings in how we understand the ideas of gravity and spacetime (I'm not averse to the idea of its existence, just like I can accept the doctrine of ultimate quantum indeterminacy, but to hear someone go on about 'Dark Matter' I get the impression that they might as well be saying that the Flying Spaghetti Monster is pushing suns and galaxies around on his noodly appendage).

I suggest that the bean counters keep crunching the numbers until there's a more likely explanation available.

Until then, Scientific Progress accidentally bonks into an invisible, undetectable, unsmellable, unseeable wall of some kind... 


Posted by shanekentknolltrey at 6:47 PM MNT

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