What is Dark Matter??

I hear a number of scientists speak of, "Dark Matter" but nobody can really explain it. Is it the new catch phrase for, "We have no idea what it is?"

Hawking even talks about to great length, but what is it????

Any help as to defining this type of matter/energy??

Thanks, Peace...Mondo

Originally posted by Mondogiwa
I hear a number of scientists speak of, "Dark Matter" but nobody can really explain it. Is it the new catch phrase for, "We have no idea what it is?"

Well, yeah, actually. Physicists only know it exists because they can observe its effects throughout the universe. "Dark matter" is the place holder of a name to explain the extra gravity required to keep galaxies like ours from falling apart because there's simply not enough normal matter to create enough gravity to keep them together (as shown by computer simulations).

In spite of not knowing what it is, we can at least infer some amazing properties of dark matter, like that it rarely interacts with normal matter beyond its gravitational effect. It also doesn't emit or reflect EM radiation (a.k.a. light) which makes the stuff even harder to study.

Physicists are very, very certain of existence because of recently observed phenomena in the Bullet cluster (amazing stuff, really). Two galaxies collided with each other in such a manner that matter got separated from dark matter, and gravitational lensing could actually be seen

The name for "dark energy" has a similar story. Physicists are very, very certain it exists, but don't know what it is.

Alas, that's a different topic, and I'm tired. I might try to explain it later though.

The recent cosmologic revelation speaks about the existence of bodies so dense no light escapes and they are located by inferrence even by the advanced sciences of other realms.

Here is a quote that describes the dark bodies found in time and space but which are not visible.

P.173 - §1 The Dark Islands of Space. These are the dead suns and other large aggregations of matter devoid of light and heat. The dark islands are sometimes enormous in mass and exert a powerful influence in universe equilibrium and energy manipulation. The density of some of these large masses is well-nigh unbelievable. And this great concentration of mass enables these dark islands to function as powerful balance wheels, holding large neighboring systems in effective leash. They hold the gravity balance of power in many constellations; many physical systems which would otherwise speedily dive to destruction in near-by suns are held securely in the gravity grasp of these guardian dark islands. It is because of this function that we can locate them accurately. We have measured the gravity pull of the luminous bodies, and we can therefore calculate the exact size and location of the dark islands of space which so effectively function to hold a given system steady in its course. [The URANTIA Book]

There is another type of dark gravity body found on the interior of the circuit of our galactic systems. It would be convenient to picture looking down over the top of the universe as observing a giant doughnut. The fleshy part of the doughnut contains the time-space galactic structures. The hole at the center is the gravity center of the entire structure with the galaxies all in motion counter-clockwise around the doughnut hole.

The outer ring of the hole facing the time-space structures contains many enormous black gravity bodies unique to the universe. These pulse.

P.153 - §5 On the outskirts of this vast central universe . . . there swirl an unbelievable number of enormous dark gravity bodies. These multitudinous dark masses are quite unlike other space bodies in many particulars; even in form they are very different. These dark gravity bodies neither reflect nor absorb light; they are nonreactive to physical-energy light, and they so completely encircle and enshroud . . . [the central universe] as to hide it from the view of even near-by inhabited universes of time and space. [The URANTIA Book]

The difference between these two types of bodies (i.e. the material dark gravity bodies of time-space and the pulsations of gravity from those bodies at the central core of the universe) has to do with their material construction. In time space the dark islands of space are made from the burned out and collapsed dual electrically charged particles of matter, and with those bodies near the central core of the universe, they represent the triune forms of matter not existant in the dual universes. Otherwise both kinds of dark gravity bodies are of a material construction but have to be viewed, to be visible, with devices that do not depend on illumination to map them.