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Bizarre 'dark fluid' with negative mass could dominate the universe – what my research suggests
It's embarrassing, but astrophysicists are the first to admit it. Our best theoretical model can only explain 5% of the universe. The remaining 95% is famously made up almost entirely of invisible, unknown material dubbed dark energy and dark matter. So even though there are a billion trillion stars in the observable universe, they are actually extremely rare.
The two mysterious dark substances can only be inferred from gravitational effects. Dark matter may be an invisible material, but it exerts a gravitational force on surrounding matter that we can measure. Dark energy is a repulsive force that makes the universe expand at an accelerating rate. The two have always been treated as separate phenomena. But my new study, published in Astronomy and Astrophysics, suggests they may both be part of the same strange concept – a single, unified "dark fluid" of negative masses.
Negative masses are a hypothetical form of matter that would have a type of negative gravity – repelling all other material around them. Unlike familiar positive mass matter, if a negative mass was pushed, it would accelerate towards you rather than away from you.
[...] My model shows that the surrounding repulsive force from dark fluid can also hold a galaxy together. The gravity from the positive mass galaxy attracts negative masses from all directions, and as the negative mass fluid comes nearer to the galaxy it in turn exerts a stronger repulsive force onto the galaxy that allows it to spin at higher speeds without flying apart. It therefore appears that a simple minus sign may solve one of the longest standing problems in physics.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by acid andy on Thursday December 06 2018, @09:20PM (10 children)
Isn't a negative mass the missing piece we need to make an Alcubierre drive possible?
If a cat has kittens, does a rat have rittens, a bat bittens and a mat mittens?
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday December 06 2018, @09:24PM (3 children)
Good luck getting your hands on any:
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 06 2018, @09:41PM
(Score: 3, Interesting) by acid andy on Thursday December 06 2018, @09:49PM
I wonder if you could ionize it and then attract it magnetically.
If a cat has kittens, does a rat have rittens, a bat bittens and a mat mittens?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Immerman on Thursday December 06 2018, @10:52PM
True, however, since it has negative mass, a repulsive force will actually pull it towards you. -F = (-m)*a
Of course, it repels you with an equal force, but if you're pulling it in from all directions that cancels out.
Then you can capture it in a huge bottle, set it behind your space ship, and allow the repulsive force to accelerate you both in the same direction indefinitely.
Negative mass is weird, and there's several models out there that vary as to whether it's gravitational or inertial mass that's negative, or both. In this case they're clearly talking about both, since it's supposed to be attracted to the mass of a galaxy, while simultaneously pushing the stars inward. Presumably this stuff is spread all through the galaxy as well, but with a density that plateaus at some point as self-repulsion balances out the attractive effect of the normal matter.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday December 06 2018, @10:50PM (2 children)
No. It's the thing we need to make the next diet drink possible.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 5, Funny) by fyngyrz on Friday December 07 2018, @12:08AM (1 child)
Negative mass is what you get when you're not Catholic.
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Money can't buy love, but it can sure buy a yacht to pull up next to it on.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 07 2018, @04:17AM
I'd be careful if I were you. The Catholic Church has missals.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Fluffeh on Thursday December 06 2018, @11:20PM
The only way that they could theoretically satisfy some of the equations was to use matter with a negative mass, yes.
(Score: 2) by legont on Friday December 07 2018, @01:24AM (1 child)
Yes! The whole mystery of the universe - increasing expansion again after slowing down - is blamed on bloody aliens commute habits at super-light speeds. See, the suckers create space and use the proceedings for fuel without any considerations for future generations of intelligent life forms who will be farther and farther from each other. Truly global
warmingenlargement crime in progress."Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 07 2018, @09:34PM
Bah! Another Federation commie going on about anthropogenic subspace breakdown. It's all a left-wing plot to steal from hard-working Ferengi, while you fly from one end of the quadrant to the other in a private galaxy-class cruiser!