Thread: I have a Cosmology question

Originally Posted by crazycliff200843

I think I remember doing a science project on black holes in the 5th grade. Other than that, I haven't done much research about them.

But I have heard, not sure where, that some of the answers about how weird behavior is being perceived in our universe might come from the presence of dark matter?

Quite right, but dark matter is a separate topic entirely. Dark matter is simply physicists' tool for explaining the difference between observed behavior of gravity in the universe and apparent total mass. Nobody agrees on what dark matter is, or if there even is such a thing.

Some scientists insist that "dark matter" is a real phenomenon that may make up a significant portion of our universe. Matter which has mass but no volume or tangible form. If you listen to Coast to Coast AM, you'll get guys on there that think this is the be-all, end-all of astronomy.

Another group thinks that dark matter isn't dark at all. It's just plain old matter that we haven't spotted yet.

There are others who say that the whole idea is bunk, and what we are observing is the result of the fact that we are not observing the universe from an inertial frame, and newtonian physics are therefore useless to do anything more than approximate what we are seeing.

I wouldn't even begin to venture a guess at which camp is right, except to say that in any case, it's a perfect example of how little we really understand about the universe, despite all how far we have come.