Dark Matter: Discovering a Glitch in the Universe

Berkeley Scientific: the journal of young scientists

article

Mina Nakatani

关键词: Dark Matter;    Astronomy;    Astrophysics;    Massive Astrophysical Compact Halo Object;    MACHO;    Supernova;    Exotic Matter;    Axion;    Gravitino;    Weakly Interacting Massive Particle;    WIMP;    Big Bang;   

DOI  :  10.5070/BS3241046901

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: University of California, Berkeley

【 摘 要 】

Seeing is believing. The concept seems simpleenough to be considered indisputable. Afterall, many beliefs stem from that which is visible, anda number of scientific theories have originated fromvisible observations. By this logic, it would appearas though conclusions drawn through visible observations should override those made using numericalcalculations; where the two disagree, a mistake in themath seems to be the most likely problem. However,this is far from true in the study of astronomy, as unseen objects can still exist, detectable only by their effects on the space around them. Dark matter is a popular example of this, pulling the strings of the universewithout anyone truly understanding how it works. Byexerting gravitational effects, it forces astronomicalcalculations to depend on factors outside the visibleworld—a strange glitch in scientists’ assumption ofseeing as understanding.

【 授权许可】

Unknown