The universe around us is not what it appears to be. The stars make up less

than 1 percent of its mass; all the loose gas and other forms of ordinary matter, less than 5 percent. The motions of this visible material reveal that it is mere flotsam on an unseen sea of unknown material. We know little about that sea. The terms we use to describe its components, "dark matter" and "dark energy," serve mainly as expressions of our ignorance.

This article was originally published with the title The Search for Dark Matter.

5 Comments

1. 1. Spacely 04:17 PM 2/2/08

   Dark Matter as in the space between all the physcal objects in the universe. If this is what you are calling dark matter? Let me suppose that the universe were small enough or that there were enough suns in the universe for our universe to be totally lit up. To me it seems that dark matter is dart due to the absence of light.
   What I find most puzzling is where is the edge of the universe. Where does it end? What is there ? If our universe is round like most things in it, is it some enormous round dark orb with suns and planets,etc?
   What I do not see is that the universe is infinite. That it goes on without end. Imagine if you could looking down on our universe because you are outside of it. Would you be in an infinite "light matter" universe outside of ours ?
   To me, our dark universe has to end or re-connect
   ( full circle) somewhere. I heard that our universe is shaped like a saddle. go figure.

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2. 2. toddford2 03:00 PM 9/10/08

   What have you been smoking???

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3. 3. timmyspace 12:41 AM 12/28/08

   What if we could capture this "dark matter".....what could we do with it?

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4. 4. Danny_0110 in reply to timmyspace 11:53 AM 4/26/09

   nothing it doesnt react with anything in an electromagnetic sense scientists claim it is purely gravitational, you should look into MOND, there are many experiments set up across the globe deep underground in mine shafts looking for dark matter but none have yet found any, I think its a waste of money personally, since when has sience ever said "oh dear our theory doesnt agree with observation, nature must be wrong!" its just not logical, review the theory and make new tests, dont invent mistic particles, if any dark matter is ever detected Im happy to go along with it but until its detection, Im not buying it.

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5. 5. waxetheloquent 04:56 AM 7/28/11

   Waxetheloquent:
   Dark Energy
   
   I am not a Scientist, as will undoubtedly become evident; but hey, I've always been interested. So, this is my question: One could say we have explored our Universe admirably. Those living in our own dark-ages would have been impressed by our/their progress. We certainly are.
   
   During the aforementioned times, the best-minds considered the earth “The center of the Universe.”The moon and the sun orbited the earth, as did everything else they saw in the night sky.
   
   To discover that the Universe is not all a-swirl for our sake alone, and that the sun doesn't necessarily exist just to make our day, we first needed to improve on our relatively poor sense of sight, (see the invention of the telescope) before we could begin to explain, all of what we refer to in the broadest of terms as,“The Universe.”
   
   “Quote” Graviton:
   “I've always had trouble with the concept of dark-matter/dark energy. I personally don't believe it exists. I believe the anomalies we are witnessing are properties of gravity on a very large scale that we are yet unaware of.” End quote:
   
   It is said that: “Our-Universe”is expanding, and gaining speed as it goes, as opposed to the gradual slow-down generally associated with explosions. Evidently, this new-found acceleration cannot be explained by our present understanding.
   
   Some of us theorized as I recall, that the expansion would slow, and at some point reverse direction, thus setting the stage for yet another Singularity. In an eternal closed system of repeated big bangs and “big crunches;”thereby, preserving our Universe, if not for an infinity, then at least indefinitely.
   
   However, there's an assumption here that bothers me: Do we not generally presume our “Big-Bang”to be the only one in play?
   
   Rather than being here around us, and thus banished to invisibility, could “dark-matter and dark-energy,”be a large accumulation of stars, dust, and gas far-enough away from us to remain unseen, whilst still adding their gravitational influence? Is the mass of the universe necessarily the sum of that which we currently observe?
   
   If gravitational attraction only requires matter, is there any gravitational difference between a vast area of dust/gas, outside our light-year range of detection, and the equal quantity of dust/gas we see in a familiar star? Couldn't the gravity of objects beyond those,“thirteen billion”(?)-light-years, of time, have had a collective influence on our local area, even before those stars were born or detected by us?
   
   As the universe expands, and our solar-system becomes more and more devoid of the stars we now observe, when they're too far away for us to see them, is it possible new stars will become visible to us?
   
   In a firmament as orbital and complex as our own, is the quest to find “dark-matter/dark-energy”analogous to the sun of our“dark-ages”orbiting the earth?
   
   Does the mysterious abundance of matter and energy which remains elusive, need be found by trillion-dollar particle accelerators. Perhaps we need an instrument to sense the pull of gravity, emanating to us from a multitude of big-bangs, currently far beyond our ability to detect their light.? Perhaps, there is another player, out beyond our current understanding.
   
   R. Earl Brown 7/28/2011/3261-Seaside, Oregon

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