Comments on: Astronomers Find a Galaxy Stuffed With Dark Matter http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2008/09/19/astronomers-find-a-galaxy-stuffed-with-dark-matter/ 80beats is DISCOVER's news aggregator, weaving together the choicest tidbits from the best articles covering the day's most compelling topics. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 17:59:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: scott http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2008/09/19/astronomers-find-a-galaxy-stuffed-with-dark-matter/comment-page-1/#comment-7812 scott Tue, 23 Sep 2008 01:46:24 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2008/09/19/astronomers-find-a-galaxy-stuffed-with-dark-matter/#comment-7812 Why is that so hard to believe? Scientists have known for some time the the value of the measurable mass doesn't account for the value of mass deduced by experiment and observations of the movement of galaxies. We know there's a lot more out there than we can see. Maybe not because we weren't looking closely enough, but because for a long time we didn't have the technology to look in the right way, and also because we didn't know what we were looking for. Why is that so hard to believe? Scientists have known for some time the the value of the measurable mass doesn’t account for the value of mass deduced by experiment and observations of the movement of galaxies. We know there’s a lot more out there than we can see.

Maybe not because we weren’t looking closely enough, but because for a long time we didn’t have the technology to look in the right way, and also because we didn’t know what we were looking for.

]]> By: Damian http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2008/09/19/astronomers-find-a-galaxy-stuffed-with-dark-matter/comment-page-1/#comment-7780 Damian Mon, 22 Sep 2008 14:04:15 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2008/09/19/astronomers-find-a-galaxy-stuffed-with-dark-matter/#comment-7780 “For every bright galaxy we can detect in the sky, there are likely hundreds of ultra-faint dwarf galaxies surrounding them that we are unable to detect with current technology,” [said co-author] James Bullock…. “It seems that these nearly-invisible galaxies are likely the most common galaxies in the universe.” This doesn't make any sense. If there are really 100 of these faint galaxies for every known galaxy, you've just increased the mass of the universe by 100 times. A halo of dim galaxies, "undetectable by current technology" and surrounding every bright galaxy, wouldn't that pretty much account for all the "dark matter" right there? This really doesn't make any sense to me. They're actually saying they've been off by a factor of 100 for the number of galaxies out there, because they just weren't looking closely enough? “For every bright galaxy we can detect in the sky, there are likely hundreds of ultra-faint dwarf galaxies surrounding them that we are unable to detect with current technology,” [said co-author] James Bullock…. “It seems that these nearly-invisible galaxies are likely the most common galaxies in the universe.”

This doesn’t make any sense. If there are really 100 of these faint galaxies for every known galaxy, you’ve just increased the mass of the universe by 100 times. A halo of dim galaxies, “undetectable by current technology” and surrounding every bright galaxy, wouldn’t that pretty much account for all the “dark matter” right there? This really doesn’t make any sense to me. They’re actually saying they’ve been off by a factor of 100 for the number of galaxies out there, because they just weren’t looking closely enough?

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