Comments on: COSMOS Reveals the Cosmos

By: Bloggernacle Times » This Week in Science and Religion

Bloggernacle Times » This Week in Science and Religion — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 06:02:15 +0000

[…] For those interested in dark matter there were some big developments this month. Scientists mapped the dark matter giving us an excellent picture of how they relate (or don’t relate) to galactic structures. (Also at Cosmic Variance) The relationship to Mormonism? Not a direct one, although given our materialism and claims about there being more “stuff” to the universe than what we normally see, new forms of matter are always interesting. We’d discussed the topic here at BT last year. […]

By: Chris W.

Chris W. — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 03:47:01 +0000

Mostly off-topic, but not entirely (via N.E.W.):

The Lorne Trottier Public Science Symposium (link to poster)

A COSMIC COINCIDENCE: WHY IS THE UNIVERSE JUST RIGHT FOR LIFE?

January 25, 2007
5:00 p.m. â€” 7:00 p.m.
Stephen Leacock Building, McGill University
(Montreal, Quebec, Canada)

Panel: Paul Davies, George Efstathiou, David Gross, Leonard Susskind

Moderator: Victoria Kaspi (McGill, Astrophysics)

By: Shantanu

Shantanu — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 22:56:44 +0000

Hi
Sean (and Steve),
I agree with what you said about MOND. However unless and until dark matter is
discovered(or produced) in a laboratory based experiment, people are still going to be
skeptical. Also the results from Bullet cluster do not tell us anything about the mass of the dark matter particle or even about the number density of dark matter particles.

Also I have come across papers by Peebles, Damour, Visser (and perhaps others)
which talk about dark matter with scalar interactions, or dark matter with non-zero pressures
and many other exotic models for dark matter.

If this is really true, then of course the distinction between dark matter and modified gravity
becomes much more blurred and then whether you call it dark matter or modified gravity
or both is only a pedantic question. Do you agree?
Thanks

By: kapakapa

kapakapa — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 06:59:51 +0000

22. citrine:

I am afraid I brought this epoch making news down to street level. My apology to scientists.

“We’ll find dark matter when pigs fly?”

As DM gets clumpier and collapses more, will they someday find literally pitch dark black holes/clusters?? A total amateur ponders, probably a totally dumb question.

Cheers.

By: Astronomy Buff - The Universe Can’t Be Bothered to Interact With You

Astronomy Buff - The Universe Can’t Be Bothered to Interact With You — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 06:52:31 +0000

[…] There is already an excellent writeup describing some of the details of this research by Phil Plait, the Bad Astronomer (I wish he would have picked a different name, I hate calling him that), and another one at Cosmic Variance, so I won’t duplicate their efforts. Here’s what I’ll bring to the discussion. […]

By: Sean

Sean — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 22:04:05 +0000

Cynthia, you’ll have to look into the papers themselves — this image by itself doesn’t have that information. Don’t ask me, I’m just the blogger.

Allyson, I’m happy to come to JPL to give a talk. But not about this! See above.

By: Allyson

Allyson — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 19:25:51 +0000

So when are you coming to give a talk at JPL about all this stuff? With slides! And perhaps puppets!

By: Cynthia

Cynthia — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 19:17:38 +0000

Sean, you say:

“…most of the dark matter concentrations are indeed found where ordinary matter is. But (apparently) some of the smaller ones [concentrations] are not.”

Let me pose two questions regarding this statement:
1) What is the current estimated breakdown between “clothed” dark matter (meaning dark matter draped in ordinary matter) and “naked” dark matter (meaning dark matter not draped in ordinary matter)?
2) From looking at this 3-D image, how’s one to distinguish between what clumpy shapes/colors represent “clothed” dark matter, and–on the other hand–what clumpy shapes/colors represent “naked” dark matter? In other words, is the difference between “clothed” and “naked” expressed in , for instance, contrasting colors and/or contrasting shapes?

By the way, I’m aware of the evolution of time (the cosmic arrow of time, so to speak) within this 3-D image. To me, however, this 3-D image just doesn’t seem to convey this issue of “clothed” versus “naked” dark matter…

By: Sean

Sean — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 18:01:26 +0000

Steve, there’s more about that here and here. MOND is not dead, but it’s increasingly unattractive; for example, even its supporters admit that it only does away with a bit of the dark matter, not with most of it.

By: citrine

citrine — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 15:27:15 +0000

kapakapa on Jan 9th, 2007 at 5:25 am
Am I the only one who sees an ensconced cosmic-hippo happily surrounded by a jugon, a flying pig, a manta ray and even a floating peace of chocolate?

******************************************************
kapakapa

You are not alone. The entire picture looks to me like a cluster of flying pigs. (”We’ll find dark matter when pigs fly?”)