

Computer Geeks: Compete to Help NASA Explain Dark Energy - twymer
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/12/great-dark-energy-competition/

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J3L2404
Hopefully cosmological kludges like dark matter will fall by the wayside as
better observational data is utilized.

Here's a start:
[http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/12/101201134158.ht...](http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/12/101201134158.htm)

With triple the number of stars in the universe the balance between baryonic
matter and unicorn dark matter becomes more like 60/40 with the aesthetically
painful dark matter on the short side.

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dlnovell
I'm totally with you on that. I've really always hated "dark matter" and "dark
energy", as far as I'm concerned it's a terrible violation of the scientific
method.

We have two observations: 1) the rotational speed of galaxies appears to be
too high for the calculated mass such that the galaxies should fly apart but
don't -and- 2) the expansion of the universe appears to be accelerating.

From these two observations, physicists have created theories for a new kind
of mass and a new kind energy that has never been detected and don't fit any
of our existing models. I'm not suggesting that it's impossible that these new
forms exist, but it kinda seems like religion to me - we can't detect it in
any way but are supposed to have "faith" that it's there because there's no
other readily available explanation for something in the world around us. It's
possible, but isn't it much more plausible that we're merely missing a much
more reasonable explanation? Maybe some of the things we hold as constants
aren't constants (such as the mass in each galaxy).

We shouldn't dismiss dark matter outright, but we also shouldn't treat it as
the only, or even the most likely explanation.

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J3L2404
'From these two observations, physicists have created theories for a new kind
of mass and a new kind energy'

There is also gravitational lensing and some others but no direct evidence.
IANAP but our not fully understanding gravity and the Flyby and Pioneer
anomalies hint at some breakdown of known physics. The first and farthest
craft sent by man has a distance anomaly, directed at the sun, hmm. Plus the
thought of new laws on gravity is much more exciting than dark matter and
there should be a slew of new findings as data analysis gets better so its
anyones guess.

