MadSci Network: Astronomy
Query:

Re: This is my theory for the origin and purpose of dark matter/energy. True?

Date: Wed Sep 12 16:05:57 2007
Posted By: Phillip Henry, Staff, Physics, Lockheed Martin & Florida Tech
Area of science: Astronomy
ID: 1189180034.As
Message:

Thank you for your question Harsh - and an interesting idea. But the 
short answer is that there is no evidence that the expansion can stop nor 
that we can yet answer the question regarding the Big Bang - "what went 
bang". 

Dark Matter and Dark Energy are two different but each very important 
components of our universe. Together, they make up an estimated 95% of 
our universe. However our universe, so far as we know obeys a zero-sum 
rule. By conservation of energy, the sum of all the matter and energy 
(which is equivalent to matter through E=mc^2 through Einstein's 
Relativity) is fixed. All you could hope to do is change one form to 
another. But there is not enough matter in the universe to slow the 
expansion. In fact, the expansion seems to be accelerating. We currently 
have no credible mechanism to make the universe cyclical. Instead it 
looks like it had a beginning and will continue to expand. Right now, it 
appears that the universe has less than half the amount of matter/energy 
to slow the expansion and bring about a collapse.

Attached are some useful links which explain Dark Energy and Dark Matter. 
But keep the ideas coming. Up until about 10 years ago, we thought we had 
a nice reasonably well understood explanation for the origin of our 
universe. Then observations turn some of those ideas on their heads and 
Dark Energy is the outcome. It really just represents a name for 
something that was not expected and is yet to really be understood.
 http://science.hq.nasa.gov/universe/science/dark_energy.html
 http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/features/exhibit/map_weighing.html
 http://instruct1.cit.cornell.edu/courses/astro101/lectures/lec30.htm



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