Galaxies are made of three main ingredients: stars undergoing various degrees of stellar evolution, clouds of gas and dark matter.
Even as scientists are convinced that they are right about everything, nobody knows what dark matter is.
Astronomers using observations from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory have studied how dark matter in clusters of galaxies behaves when the clusters collide. The results, published in the journal Science on 27 March 2015, show that dark matter interacts with itself even less than previously thought, and narrows down the options for what this mysterious substance might be.*
*David Harvey, Richard Massey, Thomas Kitching, Andy Taylor, and Eric Tittley. The nongravitational interactions of dark matter in colliding galaxy clusters. Science, 27 March 2015: 1462-1465 DOI: 10.1126/science.1261381
Dark matter is a giant question mark looming over our knowledge of the Universe. There is more dark matter in the Universe than visible matter, but it does not reflect, absorb or emit light, making it invisible. Because of this, it is only known to exist via its gravitational effects on the visible Universe
Some scientists opine that dark matter might be constituted of “supersymmetric” particles. Supersymmetry is a theory in which all particles in our Standard Model — electrons, protons, neutrons, and so on — have a more massive “supersymmetric” partner. While there has been no experimental confirmation for supersymmetry as yet, the theory would solve a few of the gaps in our current thinking. One of supersymmetry’s proposed particles would be stable, electrically neutral, and only interact weakly with the common particles of the Standard Model — all the properties required to explain dark matter. But that’s a theory and while scientists make a respectable living assembling this sort of theoretical model — nobody knows what makes up the greater part of the Universe.So much for mankind having the answers.
Is there a God? Progressives (in particular) make the case for no God and ridicule prayer. However those same people have no problem believing in invisible rays that travel from point A to point B and bring a message to their i-phone. I realize that is not considered a fair comparison. Mankind’s knowledge is based on a very small subset of information, but we think that it’s huge. We have no idea what makes up well over a third of the known universe and is the glue that holds everything together.
Today is Easter and people around the globe will celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. I wish them and you a Happy Easter.
I hope that you are able to spend time with those you love here and now with the understanding that what we do in this life, echoes in eternity.
Little chickens, with colored eggs. Happy Day to one and all.
Whenever I think of baby chicks, I recall buying them in Po City, PI and feeding them to the crocodiles. Naturally, I wasn't the only one doing it. The locals generated a healthy income from the trade.
I won't be doing that today – I'm not that wicked anymore.
Happy Easter
Happy and Blessed Easter, LL.
Spending a quite day home after Easter Mass. Susie is manning her post at the pharmacy at the U of I hospital, seems the sick take no breaks and she has done so on more holidays than we both care to remember over the past 40+ years. Still, it is as it should be, so today I will putter in the yard, work on a blog post or two and prepare a supper for when she gets home.
Have a Blessed Easter Larry, hope you get a bit of grand-critter time in, there is nothing better! :)
Happy Easter!
That sounds like the perfect Easter.
Happy Easter.
To you who live where every day is a holiday, every meal is a banquet and every formation is a parade, I wish you Happy Easter.
Thank you, Adrienne. Happy Easter
Lots of things that you-me-and others did when younger would not now be done. As we age, we smile more and laugh less.
Isn't that the painful truth?
What happened to us, WoFat? We're civilized now (loosely defined).
Happy Easter
"Echoes in eternity" — I like that.
I've always equated dark matter with the current Adminstration, but perhaps I'm wrong?
Happy Easter!
I think we're more serious now, about different things. And we give less warning when we're going to get even with someone.
Thanks Rick, same to you and yours.
And now Easter is over and the Jewish are close to passing over, the world moves on.
That's a very lovely Easter post.
Heard a preacher once say something similar about how he accepted a gift of a radio as a child, even though he didn't understand how it worked. Was he going to reject this desirable thing, just because he didn't understand it? Hell no. He was happy to just say "Thank you!!" and then relish it.
It's not easy to accept grace or faith in that which we don't understand… But we ought to approach it similarly…
He's risen, thank God. Happy Easter.
Thank you and same to you and yours sir!
If what I do echoes in all eternity then we have a problem…
Not a fan of Easter but hope all enjoyed it.
Had a lovely day LL, even though it was snowing a little. Hope your day went well also.
No warning at all.
Kindness clearly echoes through life.
The weather was perfect and everyone at our place ate too much. By 7pm they'd all left and fun was had by all — and it was quiet again and not too messy.
Thank you, Jenny.
Happy Easter and Happy Birthday to your lovely daughter, Josephine.
It's one of those days, Old NFO.