posted
That article was incomprehensible. However, it sounds pretty neat. I'd like to see what ends up published in a journal.
Posts: 4287 | Registered: Mar 2005
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posted
I got it, except I don't understand why the "strands" of matter are accelerated by dark matter so much. I thought dark matter was diffuse, and incapable of exerting strong local gravity.
Posts: 3354 | Registered: May 2005
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quote:Originally posted by C3PO the Dragon Slayer: So this is half of the unaccounted-for matter?
The article is kind of ambiguous on this point. In one paragraph it says "half the matter that scientists knew must be there but simply could not see" which would imply half of all dark matter. In a later paragraph it says "half of the missing baryonic matter". I assume that "missing baryonic matter" is a subset of dark matter, though, so that would contradict the previous statement.
I'm just as confused as you are. We need a better article, methinks.
Posts: 2907 | Registered: Nov 2005
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posted
It seems to me that from wording of the 3rd paragraph, baryonic matter is not a subset of dark matter (since they say "there is also...") but that both are a subset of "half the matter that scientists knew must be there but simply could not see"
The 4th paragraph says half the baryonic matter has turned up -- explaining they can see it now in webs.
The 9th paragraph says "This is where dark matter comes in..." which is ambiguous, but may mean, "half the dark matter must be affecting these webs!!!"
But yeah, it would help if the article was better written.
As to Dark Matter being able to affect these "strands" of matter, when I was reading it, I was under the impression they were talking about cosmic-scale strands, not literal spider-web thickness. I've read in other articles how if you could see the entire universe, galaxies are not uniform, but are clustered together in a spider-web shape. (The 4th to last and 3rd to last paragraphs seem to me that's what they are talking about. But again, I could be wrong.)
But yeah, I was confused by that part too. "Dark Matter... pulls the gas in. This causes what I call sonic booms..." So, in other words, they aren't sonic booms, but you just call them that so you won't have to explain what is really happening?
Posts: 172 | Registered: Aug 2001
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posted
"...galaxies are not uniform, but are clustered together in a spider-web shape..."
There was an article a few years back that postulated that it's actually concentric stacked rings of octahedrons, IIRC.
Posts: 3354 | Registered: May 2005
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