Sun Might Hold Secret of Dark Matter

[nick c]

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/0 ... atter.html

Reading this article left me scratching my head
There is just so much wrong with this!
Too bad we can't curse on this forum...

The invisible stuff called dark matter is thought to make up as much as 90 percent of the universe's matter.

90%! Has this % recently gone up? Is it going to approach 100% eventually? and then perhaps cosmologists will say:
"we can't observe any of the universe but can only infer its' existence."

Two hypothetical particles have become the prime suspects to explain the fundamental make-up of dark matter: so-called axions and WIMPs (Weakly Interacting Massive Particles)[...]
[...]Only a handful of groups are searching for the lightweight particles called axions. For both sociological and technical reasons, WIMP searches far outnumber axion ones, according to David Tanner, a physicist at the University of Florida, and others.

Please everyone write your congressman to get more grant money for the search for axions! Let's be fair. Think of the payoff when a cosmologist walks into Congress and shows them that bucket full of axions... tax dollars well spent

The axion is extremely lightweight with neither electric charge nor spin, so it hardly interacts with the universe's surrounding matter — that's if the particle even exists.

The sun is thought to possibly be a factory for these axions. When photons at the sun's core feel a magnetic field, they become axions, the thinking goes. Since the teensy particles only weakly interact with ordinary matter, they are thought to easily fly through the sun's core toward the surface unimpeded by other particles. Once at the solar corona, where the sun's magnetic field is strong, the axions would convert back into photons.

Axions are produced in the sun's core from photons which convert back into photons when they leave the sun oh well, forget about bringing that bucket of axions to congress.

Whether it's made of axions or WIMPs, or something else, the invisible stuff [url2=http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/0 ... atter.html]seems to be everywhere.[/url2]

"Everyone in the business agrees that there is an unknown particle that is the dark matter of both the universe and of our galaxy," Tanner said. "Galaxies have a halo of dark matter, so their mass is much greater than the mass of the luminous stars in them."

The problem is that "everyone in the business" refuses to question the a priori assumption of a non electric, Gravity only universe. Anyone who does question this will surely never make it through the peer review process since all the "peers" are the "everyone in the business" who agrees with each other

It has been noted that 99.9% of the observable universe is plasma,
however, 90% of the universe is (unobservable) Dark Matter.
So, does plasma constitute only 9.99% of the universe? in the mainstream view...or
Is 99.9% of Dark Matter composed of "Dark Matter plasma?"
I feel a research Grant coming

Nick

[rduke]

Good post!

Every time I hear them talking about "Dark Matter".. and WIMPS... and Axions.. I get depressed.

I cannot tell you how many books I have read on science which talks about these things and postulates all these reasons that sometimes bends in ways to form things we have "observed".... but in no way is it the end all...

I think all this FLUFF is there to give these scientists wiggle room ... so they can say... "Well its mysterious and strange stuff and we do not fully understand it.. but we have postulated a dozen brand spanking new particles that may be the really real reason...now if we could get some funding perhaps we could find out what particles formed those and so forth then we would know .00000001% of what there is to know"

And they say Science is the answer to Religion....

[junglelord]

The Church of Modern Cosmology strikes again. All bow to the fairy tale cast of favorites....Mad Hatter this belongs in the Mad Ideas section.

[Grey Cloud]

The invisible stuff called dark matter is thought to make up as much as 90 percent of the universe's matter.

I'm with Nick on this as the last I heard was dark energy 75%, dark matter 21% and normal matter 4%.

For both sociological and technical reasons, WIMP searches far outnumber axion ones, according to David Tanner, a physicist at the University of Florida, and others.

Sociological reasons? It sounds like the line from the old Monty Python sketch featuring the Church Police: 'It's a fair cop but society's to blame'.

The sun is thought to possibly be a factory for these axions. When photons at the sun's core feel a magnetic field, they become axions, the thinking goes. Since the teensy particles only weakly interact with ordinary matter, they are thought to easily fly through the sun's core toward the surface unimpeded by other particles. Once at the solar corona, where the sun's magnetic field is strong, the axions would convert back into photons.

1. Given that they think that the Sun is nuclear powered, have they looked at nuclear power plants?
2. Can photons 'feel'?
3. 'teensy'? Since when has that been a scientific term? (Or even a word used to anyone over the age of 5?)
4. According to this paragraph these axioms never actually leave the Sun so how come the Universe is chock-full of 'em?

Whether it's made of axions or WIMPs, or something else, the invisible stuff seems to be everywhere

This is my favourite bit because if correct it implies that the visible stuff would seem to be nowhere. Alternatively you could view it as some form of paranoia - 'this invisible stuff man, it's like everywhere man, you can't see it but it's there watching you man'.

[Faraday Cage]

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/0 ... atter.html

The axion is extremely lightweight with neither electric charge nor spin, ...

...When photons at the sun's core feel a magnetic field, they become axions, ... Once at the solar corona, where the sun's magnetic field is strong, the axions would convert back into photons.

How can something with no electric charge "feel" a magnetic field? Correct me if I'm wrong but photons are part of the ELECTROMAGNETIC spectrum.
Fail.
Next!