Dark matter plays a role in the universe that is unknown to many.
Dark matter plays a role in the universe that is unknown to many.
Polina Engovatov

The dark side of the universe

Scot Scoop explains dark matter and its significance in the universe

Your body and everything around you is filled with a yet unknown substance that you cannot see or touch.

Many people wonder about what this substance is made up of. Many things that were not known about our universe 100 years ago are now common knowledge, and everyone should take advantage of that. Even people with no interest in physics are curious about how things work in space, and seek answers to how the universe functions.

Scientists do not know everything about space due to its size, so most of what is out there is a mystery. However, to create a better understanding of our surroundings, physicists are trying to uncover more about one of the building blocks of the universe: matter.

By current estimates, only 5% of the universe consists of normal matter that we can touch and see. Dark matter makes up roughly 27% of everything. The remaining 68% is thought to be made up of dark energy.

Out of all the matter, invisible material (dark matter) makes up 85%.  

Many of the scientific discoveries only serve to help people understand how the world worked. Practical applications of many scientific discoveries came much later. For example, when J. J. Thomson discovered the electron, it did not have any practical use in science until much later.

We know dark matter is present if it is not visible, by carefully measuring rotational velocities of the faraway galaxies, physicists can deduce that the velocities cannot be explained by the presence of the normal matter alone. 

“We know there’s some form of matter there that doesn’t radiate light and also doesn’t interact with other matter,” said Robert Wagoner, a professor of physics at Stanford University. “The rotational velocities are too great to be explained by the ordinary matter there.” 

Most physicists believe these rotational velocities can be explained by introducing one of the many different models of dark matter, though some think that it is our understanding of the theory of gravity that is wrong.

The current hypothesis is that dark matter is made up of elementary particles that are not yet discovered, and have different properties from known ones. It is considered to be non-baryonic: unlike everything that surrounds us. Even though dark matter, if it exists, would be the second most abundant particle in the universe, it yet could not be detected and studied by existing experimental physics tools.

Leonardo Santorre, an associate professor in particle physics and astrophysics at Stanford, studies the evolution of matter, on the larger distances, in galaxies further than the Milky Way. 

“The matter is made of many particles. When all these particles move together, their dynamics in how they move can be very complicated,” Santorre said. “I started looking into the behavior of the matter, in distances that are very, very big.”  

Also, Ethan Nadler, a graduate student at Stanford University, studies the nature of dark matter by observing faint galaxies.

Nadler said, “So, basically what we’ve found is that in the very smallest galaxies, dark matter has to be consistent with the cold dark matter theory.” 

The cold dark matter theory states that dark matter can’t move too fast, and it can’t interact too much with itself or with normal matter. This theory helps guide astrophysicists in further research on dark matter.

In recent years, it was learned that the dark matter halo, which is an inferred halo of invisible matter, has to be at least a million times the mass of the sun in order to host a galaxy that could ever be observed. 

One interesting aspect learned from this study was, “what kind of clump of dark matters each of them is living in, and what is the mass of a typical Dark Matter Halo, which is where one of these faint galaxies lives.”

“One thing we’re pretty sure of is that if dark matter didn’t exist, then our galaxy, and therefore we humans definitely would not exist either,” Nadler said.

When and if the existence of dark matter is confirmed, it will either prove or disprove many different theories that are associated with it. Whether or not theories like MOND, the dark halo matter theory, hold true will be determined only after more studies are conducted.

Scientists, for the most part, do not truly know what they are trying to find. However, this unknown allows for them to be able to study anything in this field in hopes of finding more information about different types of matter in general.

“The right answer is probably something that nobody has done yet. People are just researching this simply because of human interest and to know more about space in general. When people study biology and the molecular composition of plants and animals, people also want to find out more about the composition of the universe,” Nadler said. “Dark matter and dark energy make up a vast majority of everything around us. People as a whole are very interested in what it is and how it might be helpful.”

Dark matter, though significant to our understanding of the universe, as of now, would not directly help us fix any problems on Earth. However, it is necessary for our existence. 

Whether dark matter is simply an explanation for how the universe functions, or if it will bring new technological advances, is something only time will tell.

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    Stephen J. BauerJun 1, 2020 at 7:15 am

    Ever wonder why there is so much activity involved upon the event horizon of a black hole? There is a fascinating new hypothesis about the composition of a black hole and the inner workings of its event horizon. First alternative premise being that although black holes are measured in terms of stellar mass, due to their size and their force of gravitational acceleration, they do not actually maintain/retain any positive density mass, as imagined of ordinary matter. Furthermore black holes do not swallow, consume, or even pull in positive density mass beyond their event horizon boundary. So how do black holes manage to exhibit a field of gravitational acceleration so strong that no mass particles, or even electromagnetic radiation such as light, can escape from it?

    The answer is better understood by thinking about gravity a bit differently. In fact, one actually has to reimagine the universe from its perspective make up. Considering the current notion the standard model of cosmology, the current measurements decompose the total energy of the observable universe with approximately 68% dark energy, 27% mass–energy via dark matter, and 5% mass-energy via ordinary matter. In which case, as black holes are significantly more energy dense than ordinary matter, it would then make more sense that black holes are a product of dark matter rather than condensed ordinary matter. This requires that we rethink these internal relationships for total energy.

    Considering the ‘Big Bang’ theory from a singular point as modeled after a gravitational singularity, rather try thinking of the ‘Big Bang’ theory from a pre-existing fabric of space-time without any real matter, as a the proposed one dimensional determinant. Then start unfolding this dimensional perspective so space-time fabric into existence; first into a two dimensional space-time fabric, which is an expansion from our one dimensional space-time, and then into a three dimensional space-time fabric and so on. The expectation is that ordinary matter creation took place within a pre-existing medium of space-time; that pre-existing medium which is responsible for our expanding universe: dark energy. Indeed, the existence of matter would only warp the pre-existing fabric of space-time. Take away the positive density matter and you would still have a vessel in which the matter once existed. It would only be logical for this vessel to be one of dark matter, as dark matter would be unaffected by the force of dark energy.

    And yet why the complementary view of ordinary matter and dark matter? Wherein the creation of matter as a whole induces a complementary displacement, or warping, in the dark energy medium of the space-time fabric, its promulgation is interdependent on its insistence and persistence. For within this warping, there is yet another perturbation in the whole matter created; a dual relationship of newly created positive density matter in an envelopment of negative density matter. The complementary displacement insulates the newly created positive density matter in an envelopment of negative density matter. This envelope of negative density matter, known as dark matter, then infiltrates the spaces in matter, providing it with the ability to interact, bond, and evolve. Indeed it would require much more dark matter to fill the spaces among ordinary matter down to its smallest constituent parts.

    So why the dark matter glue and insulation of ordinary matter from dark energy? Positive density matter by definition cannot exist in a black hole per the expected gravitational acceleration beyond the speed of light. The speed of light is the limit of mass in motion, but not of a limit of Time in Space. Upon this hypothesis then, one can expect that there is a require transition to separate ordinary matter from its complement of dark matter. It starts first with the disintegration of matter, as a whole, as it interacts with the event horizon of the black hole. As the positive density mass is ‘squeezed’ out upon its own gravitational acceleration toward the black hole, liken to the spaghettification effect, its matter changes to allow for its disintegration via transmutation and the massive release of photons due to alpha decay and beta decay. This is the effect wherein positive density mass is collected within the event horizon, into a plasma, increasing its photon density. This ‘squeezing’ out effect is like extracting out the dark matter from the whole matter, allowing for the ordinary matter to be reduced to its smallest constituent components by the overriding force of dark energy. Once separated, the dark matter is then absorbed or accreted into the black hole, and the remnants of ordinary matter are discarded and radiated out at high velocity back into the cosmos. This remnants are then free to start, once again, to reintegrated into the universe via bonding and evolving with free dark matter.

    If we consider black holes as a model for our understanding of this interaction, then the process reveals itself. If dark matter is what engenders a force of gravity for ordinary matter to bond, then the accretion and accumulation of ordinary matter is just the resultant consequence of this force. And if we were to consider that black holes are nothing but a vessel for the displacement of dark energy, then it would also follow that this vessel of displacement, or dark matter, can be accumulated, separate of ordinary matter. It would therefore also follow that the gravitational force is more representative of negative density mass than positive density mass.

    If you’re interested in exploring this concept more, please review the alternative theories presented in the book, ‘The Evolutioning of Creation: Volume 2’, or even the ramifications of these concepts in the sci-fi fantasy adventure, ‘Shadow-Forge Revelations’. The theoretical presentation brings forth a variety of alternative perspectives on the aspects of existence that form our reality.

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