Does Dark-Matter Really Exist?

[on:]

I was checking my webmail last night when, what to my wondering eyes did appear?
This item in Yahoo! News.
See for yourselves.

I also found these:
Christian Science Monitor
New New York Times
Los Angeles Times
Space.com
Seattle Times
BBC News
Scientific American
Space Daily
New Zealand Herald

The answer to the title question seems to trend towards a “yes.”

This seemed to be the least innappropriate forum to post this in... 

[Reply #1 on:]

Aye, I think it does exist.

[Reply #2 on:]

Dark matter wasn't something that Futurama made up. I think it's what a black hole is comprised of.

[Reply #3 on:]

 

Originally posted by saucie:
Dark matter wasn't something that Futurama made up. I think it's what a black hole is comprised of.

Ahm... not exactly.

Black holes are made out of plain ol' regular matter, that's been squeezed by gravity down into nothing.

"Dark" matter was originally something the astronomers & physicists cooked up to explain apparent inconsistencies in the theory of gravitation.
Essentially it was supposed to be an unseen source of gravity. Since it couldn’t be seen like stars, galaxies, or other luminous objects it was ‘dark’ matter.

If anyone has the time, inclination, or curiosity, you might read this, or this.

I... uh... I'll just crawl back under my rock now...

[Reply #4 on:]

Yep, dark matter exists.  We just dont know what it is yet.  You cant see dark matter because it doesnt interact with or emit light, and it only interacts with other matter through gravity.  We know its out there though.  A star's orbital speed around our galaxy is related to its distance from the center of the galaxy and the galaxy's mass.  The problem is, when we measure the speeds of the stars at the edge of our galaxy, those speeds only make sense if our galaxy has 10 times more mass in it than can be accounted for by all of the regular matter we know about.  We've given this 'extra' matter the name dark matter.

@saucie: No.  A black hole isnt made out of matter at all.  It has a collection of regular matter at its center that's been smashed into something unbelievably small, but the black hole itself is more of a region of stretched space and time than a phisical object, and although there might be dark matter in it by chancee, a black hole can exist without dark matter.