The Missing Matter in the Universe

Toroid

Founding Member
Scientists have found the rest of the missing ordinary matter in the universe.
Astronomers find remainder of universe's missing ordinary matter
June 21 (UPI) -- Until now, scientists had only found roughly two-thirds of the cosmos' ordinary matter. But astronomers have solved the so-called "missing baryon problem," locating the last reservoir of missing ordinary matter.

Scientists found the missing matter in the form of oxygen gas. The gas filaments were found in intergalactic space, registering temperatures of around 1 million degrees Celsius.

Astronomers found the elusive matter with the help of the radiation from a distant quasar, a super luminous black hole.

As scientists worked out the chemistry of the Big Bang, they were able to estimate the amount of ordinary matter in the universe -- the matter you can see. Over the last few decades, scientists found 10 percent of the ordinary locked up inside galaxies and roughly 60 percent in intergalactic clouds of diffuse gas.

Researchers hypothesized the missing matter existed in a web-like pattern called the warm-hot intergalactic medium. Directly measuring the web of missing baryons is complicated by its relatively cool temperature.

"This is where nature has become very perverse," Michael Shull, scientist at the University of Colorado, said in a news release. "This intergalactic medium contains filaments of gas at temperatures from a few thousand degrees to a few million degrees."

Because much of the web doesn't absorb much energy, and is far away from direct sources of radiation, it's extremely faint.

To locate the missing matter, researchers recruited the assistance of a quasar called 1ES 1553. The supermassive black hole is found at the center of a distant galaxy. As a result of the steady supply of gas being pulled into its accretion disk, the black hole spits out intense beams of radiation.

"It's basically a really bright lighthouse out in space," Shull said.

By studying the behavior of the quasar beams as they passed through intergalactic space, scientists got a sense of where these missing baryons might be located. Next, the researchers pointed the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton satellite in the direction of the elusive baryons.

The XMM-Newton observations revealed the spectral signature of highly ionized oxygen gas. When scientists extrapolated the density of the gas across the entire universe, they were able to account for the cosmos' missing ordinary matter.

Researchers detailed their discovery this week in the journal Nature.

One question the new research fails to answer is how the webs of oxygen ended up so far away from the rest of universe's ordinary matter. It's a question scientists hope to answer in the future.

"How does it get from the stars and the galaxies all the way out here into intergalactic space?" said Charles Danforth, a research associate at Colorado. "There's some sort of ecology going on between the two regions, and the details of that are poorly understood."

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Le3fxRpx_U4


www.youtube.com/watch?v=fW5TKFTgJy0
 

3FEL9

Islander
Interesting ,,they put a $ 199 price to learn the full story.. so the common man will refrain from investigate further :)
 
Interesting ,,they put a $ 199 price to learn the full story.. so the common man will refrain from investigate further :)
I think it's an outrage that the public can't access scientific findings freely - knowledge about the universe is a human birthright, imo. The government should pay the science journals each year and offer an online public library where everyone can read any scientific paper that's ever been published.

Because an informed public is an asset to the whole of human civilization, and a catalyst for progress.
 

3FEL9

Islander
I think it's an outrage that the public can't access scientific findings freely - knowledge about the universe is a human birthright, imo. The government should pay the science journals each year and offer an online public library where everyone can read any scientific paper that's ever been published.

Because an informed public is an asset to the whole of human civilization, and a catalyst for progress.

I couldnt agree more.

I think if it were down to the money. An interested man (lets write woman to be P.C aswell ) with limited funds could do certain simple choices in his/hers life to afford journals like Nature. I.E not having cable or getting a new smartphone every year.. lol
Cutting down on the expensive sugar diet some might also do the trick

What I'm saying is that if you were a politician. You would have my vote
 
yeah i have seen this bullshit in a lot of sites right now
I often find that physics papers that were published 50-60 years ago are still behind a paywall. And every time I see that, my blood pressure leaps 20-30 points.

Forcing the public to pay just to be informed and scientifically literate is despicable and beneath contempt, imo. In most of the developed nations (our closest allies) people get paid so they can go to school and learn; but in the US people have to pay for the "privilege" of being educated. It's a sickening and completely backwards system, and a key reason that our nation has lost enormous ground in both global competitiveness and scientific progress, among other things.

Google Scholar can be a useful tool for finding freely available versions of many papers, but far too many papers are simply unavailable without paying a steep price tag:

https://scholar.google.com/
 

nivek

As Above So Below
This is a different issue than dark matter, btw, which remains unexplained.

I am not convinced it exists, it fits well with some theories, but I do not think there is any indication it exists, I might be wrong...If there is dark matter should there also be dark energy?...

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nivek

As Above So Below
Interesting ,,they put a $ 199 price to learn the full story.. so the common man will refrain from investigate further :)

At the website ResearchGate.net you can request the full text of papers such as this, they send the request to the authors, then send a copy to the email you provided if they approve...When requesting a paper choose one of the options below, I usually choose the last one as I usually get the paper I want to read...

options.png
 
I am not convinced it exists, it fits well with some theories, but I do not think there is any indication it exists, I might be wrong...If there is dark matter should there also be dark energy?
This is one of my favorite subjects, for a variety of reasons, so I'll touch on it briefly and maybe start a thread about it later.

The "dark energy effect" is absolutely real. The galaxy clusters are accelerating away from one another, evidently driven by a repulsive gravitational field. This is thrilling to me mostly because it's physical proof of antigravity. That was a real thumb in the eye to all the cynics who sneered at the notion of antigravity for 60-70 years or more. It would be very difficult to overstate the significance of this finding - for starters, it proves that the positive energy theorem (which the cynics have used for decades to bludgeon people over the head when they broached the subjected of inverse gravity) doesn't apply to our universe. But even more important, from my POV, is that it shows that a gravitational field propulsion system is attainable within the physical laws of our universe, at least in principle. If we can solve the riddle of how this effect works, the potential technological applications are absolutely mind-boggling. The Dark Energy Survey is currently looking for anisotropies (i.e., variations) in this effect, and if they find any, I'm going to throw a party because it'll mean that we can learn to harness this effect someday.

The "dark matter effect" is also very real, and has been confirmed in a number of ways: the most visually striking proof is the magnitude of the observed gravitational lensing effect of galaxies and galaxy clusters. Most physicists believe that the solution to this riddle will be found in particle physics, via some as-yet-undetected particle. They may be right, but I'm doubtful. I think it's very interesting that we're seeing a long-range repulsion between galaxy clusters, and simultaneously seeing what appears to be an unexplained gravitational acceleration toward the centers of the galaxies and galaxy clusters. The two effects look like two sides of the same coin to me, so I expect that we'll eventually find a single explanation for both effects. We've discussed a few different possible explanations for these two phenomena in various episodes of our podcast Physics Frontiers. The most interesting ones, in my opinion, involve modifications to the general theory of relativity.
 

nivek

As Above So Below
This is one of my favorite subjects, for a variety of reasons, so I'll touch on it briefly and maybe start a thread about it later.

The "dark energy effect" is absolutely real. The galaxy clusters are accelerating away from one another, evidently driven by a repulsive gravitational field. This is thrilling to me mostly because it's physical proof of antigravity. That was a real thumb in the eye to all the cynics who sneered at the notion of antigravity for 60-70 years or more. It would be very difficult to overstate the significance of this finding - for starters, it proves that the positive energy theorem (which the cynics have used for decades to bludgeon people over the head when they broached the subjected of inverse gravity) doesn't apply to our universe. But even more important, from my POV, is that it shows that a gravitational field propulsion system is attainable within the physical laws of our universe, at least in principle. If we can solve the riddle of how this effect works, the potential technological applications are absolutely mind-boggling. The Dark Energy Survey is currently looking for anisotropies (i.e., variations) in this effect, and if they find any, I'm going to throw a party because it'll mean that we can learn to harness this effect someday.

The "dark matter effect" is also very real, and has been confirmed in a number of ways: the most visually striking proof is the magnitude of the observed gravitational lensing effect of galaxies and galaxy clusters. Most physicists believe that the solution to this riddle will be found in particle physics, via some as-yet-undetected particle. They may be right, but I'm doubtful. I think it's very interesting that we're seeing a long-range repulsion between galaxy clusters, and simultaneously seeing what appears to be an unexplained gravitational acceleration toward the centers of the galaxies and galaxy clusters. The two effects look like two sides of the same coin to me, so I expect that we'll eventually find a single explanation for both effects. We've discussed a few different possible explanations for these two phenomena in various episodes of our podcast Physics Frontiers. The most interesting ones, in my opinion, involve modifications to the general theory of relativity.

Thanks, this helped a lot, I'm going to watch your podcast momentarily when my lunch is ready lol...If you like to create a thread and post links to your podcast shows as they come up and for discussion please do, I am sure many members here do not know about these podcasts and would be very interested in listening in...

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Thanks, this helped a lot, I'm going to watch your podcast momentarily when my lunch is ready lol...If you like to create a thread and post links to your podcast shows as they come up and for discussion please do, I am sure many members here do not know about these podcasts and would be very interested in listening in...
Thank you, kind Sir! I think I'll take you up on that generous offer, because honestly some of our shows get into the kinds of things that we like to chat about here, and we always talk about credible peer-reviewed papers so it can be quite exciting and educational at the same time. And honestly I frequently discover fascinating topics for our show while researching various aspects of this field - just last week we recorded a show about photonic metamaterials because they've been a subject of great interest with regard to the AATIP story and TTSA, and I was amazed to find a viable physical mechanism that might explain the mass reduction effect that was mentioned. It'll be a few weeks before we publish it though - we have a few shows to publish before that one comes out.

We just do it for fun though so there's zero production quality at this point; we don't even have a title card to open each episode yet, lol. Hopefully the rather bare bones nature of our conversations will be overshadowed by the intriguing content that we discuss!
 

nivek

As Above So Below
Thank you, kind Sir! I think I'll take you up on that generous offer, because honestly some of our shows get into the kinds of things that we like to chat about here, and we always talk about credible peer-reviewed papers so it can be quite exciting and educational at the same time. And honestly I frequently discover fascinating topics for our show while researching various aspects of this field - just last week we recorded a show about photonic metamaterials because they've been a subject of great interest with regard to the AATIP story and TTSA, and I was amazed to find a viable physical mechanism that might explain the mass reduction effect that was mentioned. It'll be a few weeks before we publish it though - we have a few shows to publish before that one comes out.

We just do it for fun though so there's zero production quality at this point; we don't even have a title card to open each episode yet, lol. Hopefully the rather bare bones nature of our conversations will be overshadowed by the intriguing content that we discuss!

Awesome, when you start the thread I'll sticky it to keep it on top, and when you have an upcoming show posted I can add it in with the promos I do for the forum...

I've begun listening to this podcast, I like it...q37

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Awesome, when you start the thread I'll sticky it to keep it on top, and when you have an upcoming show posted I can add it in with the promos I do for the forum...

I've begun listening to this podcast, I like it...q37
That's wonderful to hear - and a relief to hear, lol. It kills me that we haven't been able to get a proper intro recorded yet, but we'll get around to it so it will feel like we're at least making an effort =D It's just really difficult now because you can't even use a 10-second clip of good background music, without risking a problem with some lawyer or another, so we have to try to find a really talented musician who will let us use a clip of their work for cheap. And I'm super picky because we've all been spoiled with good music on the best talk radio shows, where those copyright laws don't apply.
 

nivek

As Above So Below
Came across this a couple days ago, what do you think of this theory?...

The case against dark matter

Erik Verlinde’s theory of emergent gravity is proof that not all physicists believe dark matter is necessary to explain the cosmos.

ErikVerlinde.jpg


Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity is just over 100 years old, and so far it has predicted the interaction between celestial objects and the space-time field very well. There are a few troublesome spots, however, in which the theory of general relativity doesn’t agree with quantum mechanics. These gaps have confounded researchers for decades, and have sprouted a handful of hypotheses attempting to explain the dissonance.

Dark matter and dark energy are the prevailing stand-in answers for this problem, but they are, as of yet, merely stand-ins. And there are some physicists that do not buy into these explanations. Erik Verlinde, a professor of science mathematics, and informatics at the University of Amsterdam, is one of them. He’s developing a theory that takes another look at the mechanics of gravity, and it seems to have struck a nerve in the world of physics.

“Emergent gravity,” as Verlinde calls it, is the idea that gravity is not a fundamental governance of our universe, but instead a reaction to the makeup of a given environment. Rather than thinking of gravity as a fundamental force, something that “just is,” is it possible that gravity is actually the result of the positions of quantum bodies, similar to the way temperature is derived from the motions of individual particles?



“Einstein’s theory can be viewed as being derived from a more microscopic picture,” Verlinde says. “In particular what we learned about black holes is that Einstein’s theory looked more like the laws of thermodynamics, and the laws of thermodynamics we know can be derived by thinking about the microscopic constituents that are describing matter.”

Verlinde focuses on quantum interactions to explain the dissonance between general relativity and quantum theories. His theory has a long way to go before completion, but so far it has held up well and has made some strong arguments, particularly against the idea of dark matter.

The galaxy rotation problem

Physicists are painfully aware of the fact that spiral galaxies are spinning faster than they should be, given the amount of matter — and therefore, gravity — they contain. At the speed that some of them are spinning, current theory says that the stars, planets, dust, and other matter should be flung off into space. Because they are not, physicists have hypothesized that “dark matter” we cannot see or otherwise detect is causing the extra gravitational pull, keeping these galaxies together. This matter is said to account for about 25 percent of the universe, but Verlinde believes that there may be another answer that can account for the deviations between the expected and observed rotation curves.

“What is observed is that the deviations that we see in the rotational curves of galaxies, which is just derived by looking at the matter that we see, always seems to occur at one particular acceleration,” he says.

That particular acceleration happens to play an important role in the relationship between a galaxy’s distance and the speed with which it’s moving away from our own, which is governed by the expansion of the universe, known as Hubble’s Law. A 2017 paper by Alexandre Chaloum Elbeze in the Journal of Modern Physics outlines how the expansion rate of the universe, or H0, is linked through a new parameter, which he calls E0, is linked to the rotation curves of galaxies measured by astronomers.


The rotation curve of the galaxy M33 shows the rotational velocity of the galaxy as a function of distance from the center. The measured values clearly deviate from the expected curve, if the only matter in the galaxy were the visible matter in the disk. Thus, astronomers have long posited that additional material, dubbed dark matter, is responsible for the curve.

Verlinde believes that this is an indication that he is on to something.

“That fact kind of hints that it has something to do with the Hubble expansion [of the universe], which at present is due to the presence of dark energy,” he says.

The Hubble constant describes the observed accelerating expansion of the universe. This acceleration is unexplained, but has been attributed to “dark energy,” which Verlinde says can be used to explain away the idea of dark matter.

“Dark energy is quite an important part of my theory,” Verlinde says. “I don’t do away with everything that’s called ‘dark,’ I just explain what is what we now call ‘dark matter’ by thinking about what the influence of dark energy would be, and that [dark energy] actually gives the same effect.”

It should be noted that Verlinde is tackling the problem with dark matter from a specific point of view as a string theorist and is working to fit it into that perspective. Mark Van Raamsdonk, a professor of physics at the University of British Columbia, says that this method should be approached with caution.

“This possibility is intriguing, but as far as I'm aware, it's not based on a precise model that is mathematically consistent,” Van Raamsdonk says. “Rather, he's using his intuition to piece together a set of ideas and provide a story for how things might work. He is a very accomplished physicist, so I think his intuition is worth paying attention to.”

Early days
So far, the ideas that Verlinde confidently stand by have proven to be mathematically and observationally valid — at least, as far as galaxy rotation curves go. The real project will be building a theory that describes more than the rotation of galaxies. Sabine Hossenfelder, a research fellow at the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies, says that a major challenge will be describing the evolution of the early universe.

Currently, theories that incorporate particle dark matter correctly predict the observed temperature variations in the cosmic microwave background. “Unfortunately, Verlinde’s emergent gravity model does not allow the necessary analysis [to prove its validity] — at least not yet,” she wrote in a Forbes article.

Verlinde is aware of the young theory’s shortcomings, but is confident that he can address them in the future.

“I only focused mostly on trying to explain these rotation curves, but dark matter has been used in many other parts of trying to understand the early universe,” Verlinde says. “I have to develop an explanation of how galaxies form, but also these fluctuations in what we see in the cosmic microwave background. If I want to describe the evolution of the universe, I have to calculate much more what is happening on longer timescales. That is the next step for me.”

Searching for support
Pitching this idea around the world has been quite a task for Verlinde. Given that the idea goes so strongly against popular belief, he has only a handful of allies even amongst his own teammates.

“I have to sell my ideas to various audiences, not just to cosmologists and people that are dealing with dark matter in other ways, but also my string theory colleagues,” he says. “I think people are slowly starting to see the advantages of the logic of my reasoning.”

“There is a lot of work still to be done, but I think this is a better theory than to just assume that there is dark matter. Because if dark matter has so many forms in which people can imagine it’s there, and there are a zoo of those theories and nobody really knows which one it is, maybe all of those are wrong indeed.”

Regardless of how Verlinde’s theory fares overall in the pursuit of understanding, the outcome has some exciting prospects.

“In any case, trying to understand the implications of these new connections between gravity and [quantum] entanglement, is very exciting and many of us are working hard to see where this will lead,” Van Raamsdonk says. “Even if Verlinde's specific explanation for dark matter doesn't turn out to be correct, we are already learning new things about gravity and black holes, and I'm optimistic that we will learn something exciting about cosmology, dark energy, or the Big Bang.”

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nivek

As Above So Below
Here's a comment from that link above...Interesting...

Xinhang Shen
It is true that we can't simply add something for some unknown cause: the lack of gravitation -> dark matter, the accelerating moving of galaxies away from each other -> dark energy, the electric force -> electric field, etc, without a deep thinking about their real causes and mechanisms. But the approach of Verlinde seems incorrect as well because the disproof of Einstein's relativity (see (PDF) Challenge to the Special Theory of Relativity and (PDF) Clock Time Is Absolute and Universal ) leads to the existence of aether - afluid medium filling up the entire visible part of the universe and playing critically important roles in all physical processes such as delivering electromagnetic forces, and the existence of aether must also be taken into account in all physical phenomenae. Without taking the effects of aether into account, quantum mechanics gets into the most ridiculous concept: the wave of probability (probability is not physical substance and can't vibrate to form waves) for the so-called particle-wave duality, which leads to a preposterous situation that a particle could exist in very different locations under the same conditions, i.e.,the particle could teleport from one location to another location instantly, and even more preposterous: two particles could be entangled and a measurement of one particle could instantly change the status of the other particle no matter how far they were separated. Many physicists even doubt the existence of the local reality. This situation is the result of the assumption that vacuum be truly empty and thus physicists are puzzled by the wave property of a moving particle. Now we know every particle is bathed in fluid aether and any motion of the particle will generate a wave of aether to accompany the particle. The wave property of a particle is the result of the wave of aether generated by its own motion. Once the vacuum is filled up with a fluid aether, we can more reasonably explain many astronomical phenomena as well: the extra gravitation binding stars in galaxies is provided by the mass of aether; galaxies moving away from each other in acceleration are pushed by the high pressure of aether just like the initial stage of the explosion of a bomb. Moreover, as electromagnetic forces are delivered by the dynamics of aether, there are no such fields called electric field and magnetic field, just as there is no resistance field for the resistance force exerted on an airplane and no lift field for the lifting force exerted on an airplane.

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