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Is dark matter’s “nightmare scenario” true?

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Re: Is dark matter’s “nightmare scenario” true?

#71

Post by BrandoElFollito »

mr_mitm wrote: post #43
doliveira wrote: post #35

Why do people in the comments always ignore that dark matter has way more evidence for it than just galaxy rotation curves (something very well explained in the article)? It's quite tiresome to read the same objections as if physicists somehow hadn't thought of them.

Probably because it's the only piece of evidence you can understand with just high school physics. Most laypeople have trouble understanding that the universe is not expanding from a single point, so how would they be able to understand what the cosmic background radiation is, much less why its angular power spectrum has peaks at particular positions? It's a common pattern with crackpots as well, that they focus on "…

> No crackpot ever revolutionizes condensed matter physics or statistical mechanics

Well, the memory of water still has a lot of support, as the scientific explanation for homeopathy. Lots and lots of crackpots here.

I would not call this crackpot, but it took an awful amount of time for some to let go cold fusion.

As for statistics - my personal hell is when I have to read some biology or biology-like document and there are numbers that are tortured to make them sing the way they are expected to. I do not even talk about economy, psychology, sociology and other similar ologies.

Re: Is dark matter’s “nightmare scenario” true?

#72

Post by scotty79 »

LatteLazy wrote: post #48
scotty79 wrote: post #40

How small a black hole would have to be to be completely undetectable by us even when it flies through the solar system?

The minimum mass for a black hole is about 3 times the size of the sun. So we would definitely detect such an object. In fact it would have pretty catastrophic consequences if it entered the solar system...

I did not mean stellar black holes.

Re: Is dark matter’s “nightmare scenario” true?

#74

Post by donatj »

antonvs wrote: post #47
choeger wrote: post #30

My intuitive objection against dark matter is that it's basically an infinite amount of additional parameters to be fitted to the observations. Galaxy behaves weirdly? Add dark matter! It behaves as expected? It obviously has lost its dark matter! It stands to reason that for every possible observation, a particular DM configuration can be calculated. I fail to see how dark matter could ever be falsified. The best po…

Dark matter is not a “recursive property of gravity” because it’s not consistent like that, as your own initial objection suggests. The concept of a particle that only interacts via gravity is straightforward. Consider neutrinos, which only interact via gravity and the weak force. Trillions of them pass through your body every second. Take away the weak force interaction and add some mass, and you have a dark matter…

> Naive falsificationism is an almost useless principle at the frontiers of modern physics. We’re long past the days when you could run some simple experiments and come up with a clear yea or nay. That’s living in the 19th century, basically - which admittedly, many people still seem to want to do.

To a layman like myself this implies both that the things being studied then are both unprovable and not potentially of practical use or significance. I certainly am not saying that is the case, but rather am looking for more informed opinions to the contrary.

The cynical side of me feels like study of something unfalsifiable is as the study of religion. A poor investment for public funds.

As I mentioned however, I am seeking opinions here to the contrary of my gut reaction as my gut is often dumb and reactionary.

Re: Is dark matter’s “nightmare scenario” true?

#75

Post by furyofantares »

miika wrote: post #7

Nightmare for who? How hard it is to admit that their equations are incorrect? Even amateur like myself can see that the dark matter is adhoc value that was calculated in order to patch the standard model. There are several better alternatives but do we need to wait until these stubborn believers have passed away until the world can move forward?

> Even amateur like myself can see that

Appealing to your own ignorance doesn't actually strengthen your argument.

Re: Is dark matter’s “nightmare scenario” true?

#76

Post by eisvogel »

The only real nightmare is that a couple of Jesuits, the same guys who imprisoned Galileo for daring to suggest that the Earth revolves around the sun, came up with the Big Bang theory to explain cosmological redshift, thereby carving out another century of confusion and creationist psychosis under the psychological rule of their lawful-evil overlords in the vatican.

Re: Is dark matter’s “nightmare scenario” true?

#77

Post by hsn915 »

doliveira wrote: post #35

Why do people in the comments always ignore that dark matter has way more evidence for it than just galaxy rotation curves (something very well explained in the article)? It's quite tiresome to read the same objections as if physicists somehow hadn't thought of them.

Maybe you could have bothered to list some of this "evidence" instead of venting that no one has heard of it?

Re: Is dark matter’s “nightmare scenario” true?

#78

Post by furyofantares »

hsn915 wrote: post #77
doliveira wrote: post #35

Why do people in the comments always ignore that dark matter has way more evidence for it than just galaxy rotation curves (something very well explained in the article)? It's quite tiresome to read the same objections as if physicists somehow hadn't thought of them.

Maybe you could have bothered to list some of this "evidence" instead of venting that no one has heard of it?

It's listed in the article.

Re: Is dark matter’s “nightmare scenario” true?

#79

Post by [deleted] »

MrScruff wrote: post #70
mr_mitm wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably because it's the only piece of evidence you can understand with just high school physics. Most laypeople have trouble understanding that the universe is not expanding from a single point, so how would they be able to understand what the cosmic background radiation is, much less why its angular power spectrum has peaks at particular positions? It's a common pattern with crackpots as well, that they focus on "…

Yes exactly. We've all experienced reading an account on our particular domain of expertise by a journalist and realising they have absolutely no clue what they're talking about. I find it amazing how presumably otherwise intelligent people reading Hacker News don't see the issue with offering lay opinions on Cosmology of all topics.

[deleted]

Re: Is dark matter’s “nightmare scenario” true?

#80

Post by scott_w »

choeger wrote: post #30

My intuitive objection against dark matter is that it's basically an infinite amount of additional parameters to be fitted to the observations. Galaxy behaves weirdly? Add dark matter! It behaves as expected? It obviously has lost its dark matter! It stands to reason that for every possible observation, a particular DM configuration can be calculated. I fail to see how dark matter could ever be falsified. The best po…

My intuitive objection to your comment is that it ignores the basis of the article: that it’s entirely about learning more about dark matter. This is the complete antithesis to what your comment claims.
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