Discussion: Dark matter, dark energy

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workman34	21. Refined Hubble Constant Narrows Possible Explanations For Dark Energy May 7 2009, 8:15 PM EDT \| Post edited: May 7 2009, 8:15 PM EDT . ScienceDaily (May 8, 2009) — Whatever dark energy is, explanations for it have less wiggle room following a Hubble Space Telescope observation that has refined the measurement of the universe's present expansion rate to a precision where the error is smaller than five percent. The new value for the expansion rate, known as the Hubble constant, or Ho (after Edwin Hubble who first measured the expansion of the universe nearly a century ago), is 74.2 kilometers per second per megaparsec (error margin of ± 3.6). The results agree closely with an earlier measurement gleaned from Hubble of 72 ± 8 km/sec/megaparsec, but are now more than twice as precise. The Hubble measurement, conducted by the SHOES (Supernova Ho for the Equation of State) Team and led by Adam Riess, of the Space Telescope Science Institute and the Johns Hopkins University, uses a number of refinements to streamline and strengthen the construction of a cosmic "distance ladder," a billion light-years in length, that astronomers use to determine the universe's expansion rate. Hubble observations of pulsating stars called Cepheid variables in a nearby cosmic mile marker, the galaxy NGC 4258, and in the host galaxies of recent supernovae, directly link these distance indicators. The use of Hubble to bridge these rungs in the ladder eliminated the systematic errors that are almost unavoidably introduced by comparing measurements from different telescopes. Post reply Do you find this valuable?
workman34	22. RE: Refined Hubble Constant Narrows Possible Explanations For Dark Ene May 7 2009, 8:16 PM EDT \| Post edited: May 7 2009, 8:16 PM EDT Continued. Riess explains the new technique: "It's like measuring a building with a long tape measure instead of moving a yard stick end over end. You avoid compounding the little errors you make every time you move the yardstick. The higher the building, the greater the error." Lucas Macri, professor of physics and astronomy at Texas A&M, and a significant contributor to the results, said, "Cepheids are the backbone of the distance ladder because their pulsation periods, which are easily observed, correlate directly with their luminosities. Another refinement of our ladder is the fact that we have observed the Cepheids in the near-infrared parts of the electromagnetic spectrum where these variable stars are better distance indicators than at optical wavelengths." This new, more precise value of the Hubble constant was used to test and constrain the properties of dark energy, the form of energy that produces a repulsive force in space, which is causing the expansion rate of the universe to accelerate. By bracketing the expansion history of the universe between today and when the universe was only approximately 380,000 years old, the astronomers were able to place limits on the nature of the dark energy that is causing the expansion to speed up. (The measurement for the far, early universe is derived from fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background, as resolved by NASA's Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe, WMAP, in 2003.) Their result is consistent with the simplest interpretation of dark energy: that it is mathematically equivalent to Albert Einstein's hypothesized cosmological constant, introduced a century ago to push on the fabric of space and prevent the universe from collapsing under the pull of gravity. (Einstein, however, removed the constant once the expansion of the universe was discovered by Edwin Hubble.) Post reply Do you find this valuable?
workman34	23. RE: Refined Hubble Constant Narrows Possible Explanations For Dark Ene May 7 2009, 8:17 PM EDT \| Post edited: May 7 2009, 8:17 PM EDT Continued. "If you put in a box all the ways that dark energy might differ from the cosmological constant, that box would now be three times smaller," says Riess. "That's progress, but we still have a long way to go to pin down the nature of dark energy." Though the cosmological constant was conceived of long ago, observational evidence for dark energy didn't come along until 11 years ago, when two studies, one led by Riess and Brian Schmidt of Mount Stromlo Observatory, and the other by Saul Perlmutter of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, discovered dark energy independently, in part with Hubble observations. Since then astronomers have been pursuing observations to better characterize dark energy. Riess's approach to narrowing alternative explanations for dark energy--whether it is a static cosmological constant or a dynamical field (like the repulsive force that drove inflation after the big bang)--is to further refine measurements of the universe's expansion history. Before Hubble was launched in 1990, the estimates of the Hubble constant varied by a factor of two. In the late 1990s the Hubble Space Telescope Key Project on the Extragalactic Distance Scale refined the value of the Hubble constant to an error of only about ten percent. This was accomplished by observing Cepheid variables at optical wavelengths out to greater distances than obtained previously and comparing those to similar measurements from ground-based telescopes. Post reply Do you find this valuable?
workman34	24. RE: Refined Hubble Constant Narrows Possible Explanations For Dark Ene May 7 2009, 8:18 PM EDT \| Post edited: May 7 2009, 8:18 PM EDT Continued. The SHOES team used Hubble's Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS) and the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) to observe 240 Cepheid variable stars across seven galaxies. One of these galaxies was NGC 4258, whose distance was very accurately determined through observations with radio telescopes. The other six galaxies recently hosted Type Ia supernovae that are reliable distance indicators for even farther measurements in the universe. Type Ia supernovae all explode with nearly the same amount of energy and therefore have almost the same intrinsic brightness. By observing Cepheids with very similar properties at near-infrared wavelengths in all seven galaxies, and using the same telescope and instrument, the team was able to more precisely calibrate the luminosity of supernovae. With Hubble's powerful capabilities, the team was able to sidestep some of the shakiest rungs along the previous distance ladder involving uncertainties in the behavior of Cepheids. Riess would eventually like to see the Hubble constant refined to a value with an error of no more than one percent, to put even tighter constraints on solutions to dark energy. Post reply 1 out of 1 found this valuable. Do you find this valuable? Do you?
joer1	25. RE: Refined Hubble Constant Narrows Possible Explanations For Dark Ene May 7 2009, 11:59 PM EDT Very Cool! Workman! Thank you for this info! Sweet! :-) Post reply Do you find this valuable?
workman34	26. RE: Refined Hubble Constant Narrows Possible Explanations For Dark Ene May 8 2009, 12:06 AM EDT "Very Cool! Workman! Thank you for this info! Sweet! :-)" . Thanks joer, I was hoping you would find it interesting. . Post reply Do you find this valuable?
Amadon	27. RE: Refined Hubble Constant Narrows Possible Explanations For Dark Ene May 9 2009, 11:49 AM EDT Then again, maybe there actually isn't any dark matter: http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Study_Plunges_Standard_Theory_Of_Cosmology_Into_Crisis_999.html Post reply Do you find this valuable?
workman34	28. PAPER 41 - PHYSICAL ASPECTS OF THE LOCAL UNIVERSE May 9 2009, 1:10 PM EDT \| Post edited: May 9 2009, 1:10 PM EDT . line 53: The circuitizing and channelizing of energy is supervised by the five hundred thousand living and intelligent energy manipulators scattered throughout Satania. Through the action of such physical controllers the supervising power centers are in complete and perfect control of a majority of the basic energies of space, including the emanations of highly heated orbs and the dark energy-charged spheres. This group of living entities can mobilize, transform, transmute, manipulate, and transmit nearly all of the physical energies of organized space. Is this the same "Dark Energy" that our Scientist are talking about? Thanks for the link Amadon. Vary interesting article. I wonder how long until they conclude if it really exists or not?!?! Post reply Do you find this valuable?
workman34	29. RE: PAPER 41 - PHYSICAL ASPECTS OF THE LOCAL UNIVERSE May 11 2009, 1:31 AM EDT The Day The Universe Froze: New Model For Dark Energy ScienceDaily (May 11, 2009) — Imagine a time when the entire universe froze. According to a new model for dark energy, that is essentially what happened about 11.5 billion years ago, when the universe was a quarter of the size it is today. The model, published online May 6 in the journal Physical Review D, was developed by Research Associate Sourish Dutta and Professor of Physics Robert Scherrer at Vanderbilt University, working with Professor of Physics Stephen Hsu and graduate student David Reeb at the University of Oregon. A cosmological phase transition — similar to freezing — is one of the distinctive aspects of this latest effort to account for dark energy — the mysterious negative force that cosmologists now think makes up more than 70 percent of all the energy and matter in the universe and is pushing the universe apart at an ever-faster rate. Post reply Do you find this valuable?
workman34	30. RE: PAPER 41 - PHYSICAL ASPECTS OF THE LOCAL UNIVERSE May 11 2009, 1:32 AM EDT Another feature that distinguishes the new formulation is that it makes a testable prediction regarding the expansion rate of the universe. In addition, the micro-explosions created by the largest particle colliders should excite the dark energy field and these excitations could appear as exotic, never-seen-before sub-atomic particles. "One of the things that is very unsatisfying about many of the existing explanations for dark energy is that they are difficult to test,” says Scherrer, "We designed a model that can interact with normal matter and so has observable consequences.” The model associates dark energy with something called vacuum energy. Like a number of existing theories, it proposes that space itself is the source of the repulsive energy that is pushing the universe apart. For many years, scientists thought that the energy of empty space averaged zero. But the discovery of quantum mechanics changed this view. According to quantum theory, empty space is filled with pairs of "virtual” particles that spontaneously pop into and out of existence too quickly to be detected. This sub-atomic activity is a logical source for dark energy because both are spread uniformly throughout space. This distribution is consistent with evidence that the average density of dark energy has remained constant as the universe has expanded. This characteristic is in direct contrast to ordinary matter and energy, which become increasingly dilute as the universe inflates. Post reply Do you find this valuable?
workman34	31. RE: PAPER 41 - PHYSICAL ASPECTS OF THE LOCAL UNIVERSE May 11 2009, 1:33 AM EDT The theory is one of those that attribute dark energy to an entirely new field dubbed quintessence. Quintessence is comparable to other basic fields like gravity and electromagnetism, but has some unique properties. For one thing, it is the same strength throughout the universe. Another important feature is that it acts like an antigravity agent, causing objects to move away from each other instead of pulling them together like gravity. In its simplest form, the strength of the quintessence field remains constant through time. In this case it plays the role of the cosmological constant, a term that Albert Einstein added to the theory of general relativity to keep the universe from contracting under the force of gravity. When evidence that the universe is expanding came in, Einstein dropped the term since an expanding universe is a solution to the equations of general relativity. Then, in the late 90's, studies of supernovae (spectacular stellar explosions so powerful that they can briefly outshine entire galaxies consisting of millions of stars) indicated that the universe is not just expanding but also that the rate of expansion is speeding up instead of slowing down as scientists had expected. That threw cosmologists for a loop since they thought gravity was the only long-range force acting between astronomical objects. So they had no idea what could possibly be pushing everything apart. The simplest way to account for this bizarre phenomenon was to bring back Einstein's cosmological constant with its antigravity properties. Unfortunately, this explanation suffers from some severe drawbacks so physicists have been actively searching for other antigravity agents. Post reply Do you find this valuable?
workman34	32. RE: PAPER 41 - PHYSICAL ASPECTS OF THE LOCAL UNIVERSE May 11 2009, 1:34 AM EDT These antigravity agents (dubbed "dark energy models” in the technical literature) usually invoke quintessence or even more exotic fields. Because none of these fields have been detected in nature; however, their proponents generally assume that they do not interact significantly with ordinary matter and radiation. One of the consequences of allowing quintessence to interact with ordinary matter is the likelihood that the field went through a phase transition — froze out — when the universe cooled down to a temperature that it reached 2.2 billion years after the Big Bang. As a result, the energy density of the quintessence field would have remained at a relatively high level until the phase transition when it abruptly dropped to a significantly lower level where it has remained ever since. This transition would have released a fraction of the dark energy held in the field in the form of dark radiation. According to the model, this dark radiation is much different than light, radio waves, microwaves and other types of ordinary radiation: It is completely undetectable by any instrument known to man. However, nature provides a detection method. According to Einstein's theory of general relativity, gravity is produced by the distribution of energy and momentum. So the changes in net energy and momentum caused by the sudden introduction of dark radiation should have affected the gravitational field of the universe in a way that has slowed its expansion in a characteristic fashion. Post reply Do you find this valuable?
workman34	33. RE: PAPER 41 - PHYSICAL ASPECTS OF THE LOCAL UNIVERSE May 11 2009, 1:35 AM EDT In the next 10 years or so, the large astronomical surveys that are just starting up to plot the expansion of the universe by measuring the brightness of the most distant supernovas should be able to detect the slowdown in the expansion rate that the model predicts. At the same time, new particle accelerators, like the Large Hadron Collider nearing operation in Switzerland, can produce energies theoretically large enough to excite the quintessence field and these excitations could appear as new exotic particles, the researchers say. The research was funded by grants from the U.S. Department of Energy. Post reply Do you find this valuable?
Amadon	34. RE: PAPER 41 - PHYSICAL ASPECTS OF THE LOCAL UNIVERSE May 11 2009, 10:58 PM EDT It seems to me that the phenomenon of dark energy is possibly just the action of the Infinite Spirit. We know that the Infinite Spirit permeates all of the Master Universe and we know that the space respiration mentioned in the UBk is a cyclical event that takes two billion years to complete a cycle. We further know that the Infinite Spirit has anti-gravity capabilities and could be the cause of space respiration. The idea of dark energy is that the expansion of the universe is accelerating. Consider that at the beginning of an space respiration expansion cycle, the universe must accelerate from a dead stop up to whatever velocity it attains half way through it's expansion. So, what the astronomers may be seeing is the acceleration time of the expansion part of the cycle. Of course, if the universe is about 13 billion years old, we should be able to see a number of space respiration cycles, but at this point, I've never seen a report of this. Perhaps this will emerge as the astronomers make better and more complete measurements. Post reply Do you find this valuable?
joer1	35. RE: PAPER 41 - PHYSICAL ASPECTS OF THE LOCAL UNIVERSE May 13 2009, 2:59 AM EDT Then we have this old paper I ran across yesterday while looking something else up on the fellowship science page that I linked to from here. Thanks for letting me compile those links here Workman. They come in handy when science question pop-up. http://www.urantiabook.org/archive/science/bl_holes.htm Amadon Bain Nice paper Amadon. What was the date on this one? Peace be with you my brothers. :-) Post reply Do you find this valuable?
XelaLaw	36. Dark Matter as Morontia and Spirit Realm May 15 2009, 10:05 PM EDT Hey All! I have to be very honest, I've only skimmed this thread, but you guys have really gotten into it. Workman, you do a lot of great reading and explaining. What a fertile mind! Joer, Amadon and Optic, very interesting too. Thank you. I will read it all more carefully. I just wanted to drop an idea in here. We (as UB readers) completely believe that there is a morontia realm, somehow overlaid upon our space-time end of reality. For instance the material Midwayers are “a little closer to the angels” than we are physically, but we share our world with them and countless other unseen beings and things. It is all part of what we are measuring when it comes to mass in the universe and force too (in my opinion). We are told with no ambiguity that there are 100 space-time, 200 morontia and 1000 Central Universe elements. We might assume realistically (still it is only an assumption) that the elements (atoms, or equiv.) of the morontia realms have mass, just as do the atoms of our everyday experience. I think the UB and current science would agree that gravity is probably a force that penetrates all dimensions and physical reality levels (even ultimatons not drawn by linear gravity are held-fast by Absolute Paradise Gravity). This is helpful. I think one of you mentioned that String Theory, which is beginning to lose its hold—but any way, even theorizes that different branes (11-dimensional membranes—matrices) “adjust” linear gravity to be in a different ratio from our everyday ideas. Perhaps gravity is a much stronger force in the 200-elemental, morontia version of matter. [Continued as a reply...] Post reply Do you find this valuable?
XelaLaw	37. RE: Dark Matter as Morontia and Spirit Realm May 15 2009, 10:07 PM EDT \| Post edited: May 15 2009, 10:11 PM EDT [Continued...] In other words, in OUR world, gravity is about a billion billionths the strength of the EW “electroweak” (the combination of electromagnetic and weak forces), and represents hardly anything at all when compared to the so-called “strong nuclear force” (the force that holds the particles of the atomic nucleus together). And what I'm saying is that the very uneven nature of the four forces is possibly more even in the morontia world. Think about it... With a weaker EW force and stronger gravitational force, atoms could have their electronic (or morontia equiv.) shells be really warped and able to form some pretty strange compounds – things we wouldn't even recognize – and there would be more gravitational strength between the nucleus and the electronic shells of morontia “matter”. Now, as I understand it mass makes a things gravity responsive, and appropriately this can be roughly described as "weight". But mass (energy at rest) also has meaning when (angular) momentum is taken into consideration. We see that the massless/timeless photon still has momentum. That's why a solar sail can be pushed in the vacuum of space, etc. It also explains why the sun warms light-absorbent materials. Photons pack a pretty big punch for their tiny size, that's for sure. Getting back to Morontia elements and atoms... [Continued as a reply...] Post reply Do you find this valuable?
XelaLaw	38. RE: Dark Matter as Morontia and Spirit Realm May 15 2009, 10:08 PM EDT If there is this unseen realm, presumably stuffed to the brim with morontia-material (equivalent) , and that form of exotic matter has mass, then we have a simple choice between the two most plausible circumstances: 1. Is the unseen mass (observed by default) as "dark matter" a reasonable candidate for an immense invisible morontia and semi-spirit realm of mass-laden, super and hyperspace objects and subjects? OR 2. Is the morontia and spirit world somehow so hidden from even the inference of any mass that WE can detect, in the form of either standard or "dark matter," and therefore just another and separate manifestation of our non-morontia, non-spiritual, space-time realm? I would choose Number 1. It seems reasonable to think that current science is very accurately measuring the morontia-spirit-physical* realms when it discusses “dark matter”. And of course the contents of Workman's “dark energy” essay must have something to do with it all, much as he has said. [*When I say 'physical' I'm referring to any kind of physically interactive phenomenon in the spirit, morontia or space-time (our) realms, When I say 'material' I only mean elemental substance, in any of those three realms.] Thanks Again! Alex Wall Post reply Do you find this valuable?
workman34	39. RE: Dark Matter as Morontia and Spirit Realm May 16 2009, 12:13 AM EDT . Hi Alex, It's great to see you on the forum Brother. I enjoyed your post. Very thought provoking. I have been trying to find a link between new scientific findings on "Dark Energy/ Dark Matter" and whats written in the UB about "DE/DM". The problem is, science doesn't consider the possibility of this phenomenon linked to anything of the spirit world. Thanks Bro, Thats good stuff. God Bless . Post reply Do you find this valuable?
joer1	40. RE: Dark Matter as Morontia and Spirit Realm May 17 2009, 6:05 AM EDT ". Hi Alex, It's great to see you on the forum Brother. I enjoyed your post. Very thought provoking. I have been trying to find a link between new scientific findings on "Dark Energy/ Dark Matter" and whats written in the UB about "DE/DM". The problem is, science doesn't consider the possibility of this phenomenon linked to anything of the spirit world. Thanks Bro, Thats good stuff. God Bless ." Hi Alex workman and Amadon and others. Nice posts all. One thing that I always remember though is our Mother Spirit has a basis in ALL matter, anything material cannot exist with it's spiritual input via the Mother Spirit. Also i wonder about the affect of anti-matter or anti gravity on gravity. What about that Ultimatonic phase that is neutral like where the + and - are canceled out? And where the crest and trough of a wave cancel each other out producing a neutralized and maybe materially undetectable flat line? Peace all. Good to see your posts Alex! :-) Post reply Do you find this valuable?

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