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What is dark matter?

Having seen watched that "smack me in the face, I'm a total nerd" kid ask that same bloody question for months now, has anyone got any ideas?

Comments

  • As a relatively new convert to the sport, I can't say much about football, but I know a little bit about Dark Matter, so....

    If you measure the orbital velocity of galaxies, you can get an estimate of the mass of the universe, which turns out to be much larger than the amount of mass astronomers can account for by adding up the mass of observable galaxies, gas clouds and such. That's called baryonic matter because it's composed of a particles called baryons, and interacts with electromagnetic radiation and shows up in telescopes. The rest, which can't be seen but does cause gravitational attraction, is called Dark Matter. What it's made up of is the subject of debate, it could be very large slow moving particles, or it could be neutrinos and radiation. Physicists know it must be there, because of it's gravitational effects, but they can't say much about it.

    Who's the "smack me in the face, I'm a total nerd" kid?
  • Quality answer Captain - where did you cut and paste that from?

    I take it you haven't seen that advert (for teachers, I think) with the kid in question.
  • [quote][cite]Posted By: Captain Spaulding[/cite]Physicists know it must be there, because of it's gravitational effects, but they can't say much about it.quote]

    Bit like bungs at notloB? We all know the're there, but can't prove their existence :)
  • Quality answer Captain - where did you cut and paste that from?

    Well, I was pretty much a "smack me in the face, I'm a total nerd" kid as well, a long time ago. I actually follow that sort of stuff. Once I even aspired to do that sort of stuff.

    Must be an English ad.

    Now if I only fully understood the offside rule...
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