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From New Atlas:
Some of the strongest evidence for dark matter to date has been discovered – and ironically, that's thanks to its absence. In a pair of studies published this week, astronomers have shed new light on dark matter through close observation of a galaxy previously found to have very little of the stuff, while the same team found a new example of a similar oddball galaxy.
It's generally believed that galaxies are held together through the gravitational influence of clumps of dark matter, so to find a galaxy with little to no dark matter was a surprise. And while it might sound like a strike against the theory, it actually ends up supporting it.
A Second Galaxy Missing Dark Matter in the NGC 1052 Group (DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/ab0d92) (DX)
Still Missing Dark Matter: KCWI High-resolution Stellar Kinematics of NGC1052-DF2 (DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/ab0e8c) (DX)
(Score: 0) by mpc755 on Tuesday April 02 2019, @12:28PM (7 children)
Dark matter is a supersolid that fills 'empty' space, strongly interacts with ordinary matter and is displaced by ordinary matter. What is referred to geometrically as curved spacetime physically exists in nature as the state of displacement of the supersolid dark matter. The state of displacement of the supersolid dark matter is gravity.
The supersolid dark matter displaced by a galaxy pushes back, causing the stars in the outer arms of the galaxy to orbit the galactic center at the rate in which they do.
Displaced supersolid dark matter is curved spacetime.
In the Bullet Cluster collision the dark matter has not separated from the ordinary matter. The collision is analogous to two boats that collide, the boats slow down and their bow waves continue to propagate. The water has not separated from the boats, the bow waves have. In the Bullet Cluster collision the galaxy's associated dark matter displacement waves have separated from the colliding galaxies, causing the light to lense as it passes through the waves.
(Score: 0) by mpc755 on Tuesday April 02 2019, @12:30PM (1 child)
The reason for the mistaken notion the galaxy is missing dark matter is that the galaxy is so diffuse that it doesn't displace the supersolid dark matter outward and away from it to the degree that the dark matter is able to push back and cause the stars far away from the galactic center to speed up.
It's not that there is no dark matter connected to and neighboring the visible matter. It's that the galaxy has not coalesced enough to displace the supersolid dark matter to such an extent that it forms a halo around the galaxy.
A galaxy's halo is not a clump of dark matter traveling with the galaxy. A galaxy's halo is displaced supersolid dark matter.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 02 2019, @05:53PM
And which candidate [xkcd.com] fits your description of "supersolid dark matter?"
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Tuesday April 02 2019, @04:09PM (4 children)
Or, dark matter DOES NOT EXIST...go with Occam's razor and choose the scientific, simple QI.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 02 2019, @05:55PM (3 children)
Or you don't exist. There's about the same amount of evidence for that as there is for dark matter: Both have only been indirectly observed.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Tuesday April 02 2019, @07:55PM (2 children)
Ooooooo.....SO Scientific, just like dark matter!
Hmmm... except DM HASN'T even been INDIRECTLY observed, only IMAGINED to be observed, while my wife has observed me many times.
Try again, bright eyes.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 02 2019, @09:10PM (1 child)
What is this "wife" of which you speak?
Some sort of fleshlight?
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Tuesday April 02 2019, @09:38PM
GOOD. ONE!
No wonder you believe in dark matter.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---