Here's an old article that explains everything very well:
Scientists say they have found evidence of an unknown planet in our solar system
21–30 of 48 posts
Re: Scientists say they have found evidence of an unknown planet in our solar system
#22Earlier quoted context omitted.
For the average person, dark matter should be presented as absolute fact. It's the leading explanation that best explains most of the associated phenomenon, and the average person has repeatedly shown themselves to be unable to understand what a scientist means when they call something a theory. Emphasizing that we haven't explicitly discovered what dark matter actually consists of inevitably leads to people who don'…
> the average person has repeatedly shown themselves to be unable to understand what a scientist means when they call something a theory The average person consumes science from news, not from scientists. A lot of news outlets and "science communicators" have been repeatedly dumbing down scientific subjects for non-scientific purposes. Clickbait, ideology, lazyness. The nature of dark matter should be presented to th…
I tend to agree about science communication, but on the other hand, I've also seen how frustrating it can be to constantly have to correct the same fallacious arguments over and over again because people misinterpret the ideas and have a bad case of Dunning-Kruger.
So presenting things as is doesn't really work because people still have only partial information relative to those who work in the field. Thus being the same in effect as misrepresentation.
I think I was too harsh in saying that it should be presented as absolute fact, ideally I'd rather the average person be much better educated in their understanding of the scientific process, such that they'd have enough humility to recognize that watching a documentary does not give them all the facts. But that doesn't seem realistic, so it's a difficult issue.
Re: Scientists say they have found evidence of an unknown planet in our solar system
#23They completely botched the spelling of the astronomer's last name, it is Konstantin Batygin, not Konstantin Bogytin.
Re: Scientists say they have found evidence of an unknown planet in our solar system
#24How is this different than when we pretended there was another planet, Vulcan, to reconcile Newtonian physics with the unexplainable phenomenons physicists noticed until others and eventually Einstein came along to prove that the theory was wrong ?
This, ether, and dark matter. The equations don’t agree with observations so we invent a thing we have not observed to explain it. I wish it would be explained like this in popular science, went to a planetarium and they presented dark matter as absolute fact.
> The equations don’t agree with observations so we invent a thing we have not observed to explain it.
Yes, and then implications of the invention are followed up on and dark matter has passed a lot of tests and has strong explanatory power (i.e. parsimony, Occam's Razor) over a variety of phenomena, from small dark galaxies up to the matter web structure of the observable universe.
So it has very very strong evidence behind it, at this point. With an unbroken trend of accumulated evidence.
The reason for remaining questions stem from the fact that the small scale nature of dark matter is not yet characterized. Which differs from all other gravitationally active materials we know of - i.e. all the particles in the standard model.
But we don't know the fine structure of space either, and we don't count that against General Relativity. In both cases the large scale properties of each phenomena, that we can measure and model, provides clear reasons why investigating the small scale properties has been challenging.
In both cases, it is the extreme weakness of gravity at small scales, and the low, if any, alternative interactions with the standard model particles we know well.
Re: Scientists say they have found evidence of an unknown planet in our solar system
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
The difficulty in changing the known laws of physics is that they still have to apply to everything else that has already been observed correctly. So it's probably true that there is another planet out there given these observations, but it's not impossible that the laws of physics themselves need further adjustments.
The article doesn't even state it this strongly. The claim is that planet 9 is the best explanation. Another explanation offered is that there was a previous planet that affected the existing planet's orbits and it is no longer there. The article also notes that this claim is being made by the same scientist that popularized the idea of a planet 9. There is plenty of room for doubting this specific planet 9 claim wit…
> There is plenty of room for doubting this specific planet 9 claim without changing any laws of physics.
For sure!
Re: Scientists say they have found evidence of an unknown planet in our solar system
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
For the average person, dark matter should be presented as absolute fact. It's the leading explanation that best explains most of the associated phenomenon, and the average person has repeatedly shown themselves to be unable to understand what a scientist means when they call something a theory. Emphasizing that we haven't explicitly discovered what dark matter actually consists of inevitably leads to people who don'…
What's more engaging? "We know the facts. We have it all figured out." Then the facts change years later. Or "There's a great mystery here, a secret we haven't yet found. We're still looking, but here's some ideas that seem to explain 90% of what we're seeing." The second is so much more engaging and would promote more interest and science funding.
It would also help retain public belief that science is a process for neutral seeking of the truth rather than a self-interested force with rapidly dropping credibility. Some revision is inevitable but it doesn't need to be routinely due to having been intentionally misleading.
Re: Scientists say they have found evidence of an unknown planet in our solar system
#27The Quantum Moon, obviously
Re: Scientists say they have found evidence of an unknown planet in our solar system
#28The Quantum Moon, obviously
I’ll just put this here…
Space is big.
Re: Scientists say they have found evidence of an unknown planet in our solar system
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
This, ether, and dark matter. The equations don’t agree with observations so we invent a thing we have not observed to explain it. I wish it would be explained like this in popular science, went to a planetarium and they presented dark matter as absolute fact.
For the average person, dark matter should be presented as absolute fact. It's the leading explanation that best explains most of the associated phenomenon, and the average person has repeatedly shown themselves to be unable to understand what a scientist means when they call something a theory. Emphasizing that we haven't explicitly discovered what dark matter actually consists of inevitably leads to people who don'…
I think presenting the evidence for dark matter is much more engaging and useful than the conclusion of dark matter.
Stuff like baryon acoustic oscillations are interesting enough on their own
Re: Scientists say they have found evidence of an unknown planet in our solar system
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
For the average person, dark matter should be presented as absolute fact. It's the leading explanation that best explains most of the associated phenomenon, and the average person has repeatedly shown themselves to be unable to understand what a scientist means when they call something a theory. Emphasizing that we haven't explicitly discovered what dark matter actually consists of inevitably leads to people who don'…
What's more engaging? "We know the facts. We have it all figured out." Then the facts change years later. Or "There's a great mystery here, a secret we haven't yet found. We're still looking, but here's some ideas that seem to explain 90% of what we're seeing." The second is so much more engaging and would promote more interest and science funding.
The second is how I have normally seen dark matter presented. The first is only used as ridicule.