November 12, 2010

Dark Matter, or Time Winding Down

The red areas in the image above represent dark matter missing in Milky Way. Scientists don't understand the apparent speed and movement in the universe based on the amount of matter we can see. They theorize there must be huge amounts of matter out there we just can't see (thus, dark matter). To make what is observed match Newton's laws, dark matter must make up 80% of the matter in the universe. So if an eight slice pizza was the universe, you would open your pizza box and only see two pieces, one of them half eaten.

Some say, dark matter is proof that we really don't understand the universe at all... I mean, if you have to make up a substance that can't be seen that is four times bigger than what you do see just to make your observations accurate, something must be off somewhere. Some say the amount of dark matter needed to make the universe move properly is proof that the Big Bang theory is wrong, that the universe always was and always will be in a steady state.

A new theory does away with dark matter through the hypothesis that time is slowing down... this would explain why the further away stars are, the faster they appear to move. If time itself is not constant, all the calculations used to map celestial movement are off and would need a gigantic fudge factor (dark matter) for them to make sense.

So what happens when time stops?

Update: And there is also the Electric Universe Theory, as well, which if you ask me, which you didn't, seems to match observation much better than the Big Bang/Dark Matter theory to which mathematicians subscribe.

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