Dark Matter

Galaxy NGC 4555

This article: A Dim Light Shines on Dark Matter is quite interesting. It discusses Galaxy NGC 4555 which "is surrounded by a gas cloud 400,000 light years wide and a searing 18 million degrees Fahrenheit in temperature." They believe the gas cloud would escape into space, except that there must be a halo of "dark matter" holding it in place.

I have been very skeptical about this idea of dark matter and dark energy for a long time. It seems they are simply contructs holding together a number of flawed theories, primarily the idea of "the big bang". This theory has become so dominant that no other theories are taken seriously by mainstream scientists, although if one looks closely it is clear there is no real evidence for it. The uniform cosmic background radiation and the red shifts of far away galaxies are the two observations most often cited to infer the big bang, but other simpler and more plausible explanations are available and largely ignored.

The big bang theory basically requires that something comes from nothing, similar to our ideas about God creating the universe. This idea seems to appeal to a lot of people. It does not appeal to me. I think it is an absurd notion. It defies common sense. Whatever is always has been and always will be. That is what common sense tells me. There is no creator, nor any beginning or end to the universe. I think the notion of creation, of beginnings and endings is simply a result of the human love of drama. A static universe does not make a good story, but it does make a hell of lot of sense. The one recognized genius of our time, Albert Einstein, believed in a static universe, at least early in his career, along with Issac Newton, so I don't think I am in too bad of company in professing this belief.

Somewhere in the middle of the 20th century, I really believe physicists and cosmologists got way off track, relying more on mathematics and abstract theories than on observations. They look for observations to support their theories, ignore those that don't, or patch up the theories to minimally fit some new observations, never considering that the entire paradigm they have been working under might be wrong. Of course, this is always the most difficult task- to change paradigms, but it seems to me it is way over due.

This brings me back to the idea of "dark matter". I don't think the fact that the gas around galaxy NGC 4555, has not disipated is real evidence for "dark matter". There could be any number of other explanations. The only reason "dark matter" is brought up here is because these scientists are so desparate to find some evidence of "dark matter" even though nobody has any idea of what "dark matter" might consist of, even though supposedly it makes up 90% of the universe.

If "dark matter" really makes up 90% of the universe, it is a virtual certainty, that we do not actually understand anything about matter at this point in history. I think our knowledge is very limited, but not so limited that we do not understand what 90% of the universe is made of. We understand a lot about matter and energy and "dark matter" is not included in the understanding. It is quite fair to assume, given this, that dark matter does not exist, so it is time to quit using this idea to explain our observations and look to find some real understanding of the phenomona we observe.