vidz
10 billion particle simulation videos, here -
http://www.mpa-garching.mpg.de/galform/virgo/millennium/
Although these are a lot older (2005) than this paper, they are nevertheless interesting. Enjoy.
The plane story of galactic clusters
Why are galaxies where they are? Astronomers have turned up a hint at the way dark matter affects the large-scale structure of the universe, with observations discovering that the Milky Way and nearby galactic clusters are arranged along a plane. The researchers, from the Australian National University, believe the arrangement …
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Tuesday 4th October 2011 06:33 GMT PJ 3
I wanna go home ...
JP ... Actually looks more like a brain structure .... or a sponge. Cool stuff... and another
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17jymDn0W6U
We live in amazing times ... Galileo, Copernicus, even Einstein would love what we are finding out about the universe. It is truly awesome sh*t !
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Tuesday 4th October 2011 06:39 GMT Tony Paulazzo
Dark matter my arse. (pun intended)
Scientist: 'The Earth is flat and we'll kill anyone who disagree's with us. The speed of light is a constant that cannot be exceeded, black holes are... (physicist breaks down crying), bumble bee's cannot fly, dark matter and dark energy is this 'stuff' that we can't prove exists but it makes our maths look good...
'The realm of quantum and macro physics still can't be shown as working together and you know what, we still haven't proved conclusively that man was descended from monkey (missing link), but rather like the flat Earth debacle we'll still teach it to our progeny as 'fact'.
Not one single politician on this planet wants peace.
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Tuesday 4th October 2011 09:28 GMT Michael H.F. Wilkinson
re: dark matter
I just love it when people come by and start saying: look scientists got it wrong in the past, current science must also be wrong. This shows they do not quite get the scientific process.
"Getting things wrong" is part and parcel of science. All current theories do is model the world in such a way that a large set of observations are explained. Testing theories consists of making predictions, doing experiments and seeing where the theory gets it wrong. If it gets things wrong, we have to make a new theory which explains all the old observations AND the new. Alternatively, there may be a mistake in the new observations, and the theory survives to be tested again. Each new theory offers a better approximation of the behaviour of nature, which should be harder to prove wrong than the previous. However, even if it mimics the behaviour of nature exactly, we have no guarantee it is the real mechanism behind nature, it is just a perfectly good model.
It is natural for scientists to be cautious when a theory confirmed by thousands of experiments is contradicted by a single experiment. At the same time many physicists are unhappy with the notions of dark matter and dark energy, and are looking for alternatives. Where there is disagreement there is progress in science.
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Tuesday 4th October 2011 12:37 GMT Eastander
These Filaments are Birkeland Currents
You do not need 'dark matter/energy' to explain these filaments. They are electric currents. If electrons move through space (e.g. in a 'solar wind') then this is an electric current. Currents move due to voltage (potential) differences, like electrons "boiling off" a cathode and racing to a phosphor screen in an old Cathode Ray Tube.
Movement of the electrons generate an electric field, which feeds back onto the stream of electrons themselves causing them to spiral and entwine about one another - a bit like a copper twisted pair. See http://www.plasma-universe.com/Birkeland_current .
Space is full of 'solar winds' (electrons, ions, called 'plasma') from the zillions of stars which interacts with electromagnetic fields and elements at low pressure which can cause light to be radiated like a neon light.
Filamentary, my dear Watson.
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Thursday 6th October 2011 13:16 GMT Eastander
Electromagnetic Fields are Much Stronger than Gravity
I'm no expert, but if you think about a solar-systems' width of electrons flowing between a set of stars in a galaxy (or between galaxies) due to a potential difference, that is a lot of electrons. The field generated by them will be weak, but much stronger than gravity. The nature of Birkeland currents is that the field generated by the electron movement will tend to force the electrons together so that they start to entwine around one - the maths gets a bit hairy, but see here: http://www.aldebaran.cz/astrofyzika/plazma/pinch_en.html. If this electron stream (current) encounters an element in space, it can cause excitation and a glow like a flame test or neon light.
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Tuesday 4th October 2011 14:55 GMT Anonymous Coward
Circular logic
Dark matter and dark energy are required because galaxies are not where one might expect them to be. But you can't then suggest that the location of galaxies is evidence of dark matter/energy, because they were made up deliberately to support their unexpected position.
Eastander is correct, you don't need invisible matter and invisible energy (The Emperor's New Clothes?), when plasmas naturally form filamentary structure, as is evidence from plasma balls, lightning, sprites/elves, Birkeland currents, nebulae, and astrophysical jets.
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Tuesday 4th October 2011 15:57 GMT Anonymous Coward
Dimenstionality
Doesn't this observation also tie in with the theory that spacial dimensions have developed/ are developing over time. So the universe was initially 1 dimensional, then as it expanded it became 2-d (hence planar distribution of galactic clusters, now 3d (and possibly on a large scale already 4d).
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Tuesday 4th October 2011 19:11 GMT Ian Tresman
Dimensions
The Big Bang is supposed to have begun as a 1-dimensional singularity. This does not imply a point, only that it is undefined, with no-where for anything to go. As soon as the Big Bang begun, we have three dimensions, with some particles free to move unconstrained. I'm not aware of any evidence for a fourth Cartesian dimension.
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This topic is closed for new posts.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
