Dark Matter revealed...

It cannot be seen, but its gravitational effects can be detected based on how light from sources behind the dark matter is changed. Supposedly the stuff makes up the majority of the universe with other matter only comprising maybe a few percent of the total.

Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope have found a ring of it very, very far away:
http://www.astronomy.com/asy/default.aspx?c=a&id=5535

hmmm yeh saw an article on this a few weeks ago in a New Scientist magazine. its pretty cool in a way.

That stuff always makes me go dizzy.It blows me away how big and surprising the universe is.Interesting stuff.Oh,and for the picture,needs more colour and the render should be more visible loll.{ doesn't the real thing look dull compared to what great artists can make?}

yeh it looks really dull lol. but hey isnt that half the point of art?

I remember last year I joined up with the supercomputing people for a little while.....our task was supposed to be to write a program that would prove the existence of dark matter or something. We talked with this crazy professor guy who had one and a half arms about it, I didn't understand any of the super complex sciency stuff he went on about. We totally failed btw, our team sucked, all we did was mess around and pull pranks.

lol, well even if u didnt succed, it sounded like great fun.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Smiling Demon

lol, well even if u didnt succed, it sounded like great fun.

---

Yeah. Dark matter is an awesome subject if you want to look into it. Really blows your mind.

It was fun lol. We weren't graded or anything, we just didn't take home any prizes. I remember when we were at the supercomputing convention thing we threw like a hundred or more paper airplanes out our window in the room they had us in. Hilarious, they were all over the parking lot and field.

I think the reason there is so much support about the theory of dark matter is because without the gravity from dark matter or *something* else, there would not be strong enough gravity with just the planets and sun to hold everything together as it has been.

Dark matter, from what I understand, was the explanation for why certain formations held together instead of drifting apart.

It's invisible, so very difficult to detect. The way astronomers detect it is by how light sources behind the dark matter are affected by the gravity. So the pic of what we see in the link is a big enough concentration of dark matter to cause the light sources behind it to form that ring shape. What we see in the pic isn't the dark matter but is the light bending around it.

that's really interesting shit.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by John

I think the reason there is so much support about the theory of dark matter is because without the gravity from dark matter or *something* else, there would not be strong enough gravity with just the planets and sun to hold everything together as it has been.

Dark matter, from what I understand, was the explanation for why certain formations held together instead of drifting apart.

It's invisible, so very difficult to detect. The way astronomers detect it is by how light sources behind the dark matter are affected by the gravity. So the pic of what we see in the link is a big enough concentration of dark matter to cause the light sources behind it to form that ring shape. What we see in the pic isn't the dark matter but is the light bending around it.

---

yeh thats exactly what it is, i might go and look up that New Scientist article now, and c wat it says lol.

Pointless spam ~Chucks

Yeah that's really interesting stuff...Though I found it quite hard to find any understandable material, given my limited knowledge. Hopefully in a few years i'll be able to know more about the subject :P

Lol Sorry Chucks...

But yeah..I still Don't see any use in dark matter...We have no way to use it. But I guess it's good to know its there

lol we forgive u CC ur still learning the ropes of freestyle posting.

anyway. yeh we dont no how to use it yet... but look at it... its like anti-matter... now we no its there we can work on ways 2 use it.

How? Noone way we can..harvest it.

It's not necessarily about the ability to harvest it because it is already serving its purpose -- keeping the unverse together. The main reason its discovery is important is that it helps progress space exploration, and furthermore undersand the universe to a better degree.

Currently, the knowledge of it is generally useless as far as physically helping us, but with time, I think it will be essential.

not that we no off now. doesnt mean we wont be able to in the future. Knowing it exists is the first step. it alows people to start to try and think of ways to use it. at the moment we these people will be no doubt mad. but when have our great scientists ever been sane???

Ein-True True. Didn't think about that.

SD- Sorry still unscrambling the jumble up sentences you just said. Lol

It's not the ability to harvest it or use it... But rather knowing it's there and studying it allows us to get a more accurate picture of the universe and thus draw conclusions to how things work, and THAT we can use :).

Yes I understand.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Smiling Demon

not that we no off now. doesnt mean we wont be able to in the future. Knowing it exists is the first step. it alows people to start to try and think of ways to use it. at the moment we these people will be no doubt mad. but when have our great scientists ever been sane???

---

Translation for Chaotic:
If we don't know it now, doesn't mean we won't be able to in the future. Knowing it exists is the first step. It allows people to start and try to think of ways to use it. At the moment, these people will be no doubt mad/crazy. But since when have your great scientists ever been sane?

I think it's something like that anyway, lol.

lol thats what i was trying to say chucks lol. thanks for translating.

Thxs Chucks lol