Surprising Science — November 26, 2009

Dark Matters

Making a spacecraft powered by dark matter or a black hole would be a formidable task, but appears to be possible according to top physicists.

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“In August, physicist Jia Liu at New York University outlined his design for a spacecraft powered by dark matter. Soon afterwards, mathematicians Louis Crane and Shawn Westmoreland at Kansas State University in Manhattan proposed plans for a craft powered by an artificial black hole. No one disputes that building a ship powered by black holes or dark matter would be a formidable task. Yet remarkably there seems to be nothing in our present understanding of physics to prevent us from making either of them. What’s more, Crane believes that feasibility studies like his touch on questions in cosmology that other research hasn’t considered.”

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Starts With A Bang

Ask Ethan: Does space require dark energy in order to exist?

It’s possible to remove all forms of matter, radiation, and curvature from space. When you do, dark energy still remains. Is this mandatory?

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Starts With A Bang

Inflation and dark matter are not like string theory

Inflation, dark matter, and string theory are all proposed extensions to the prior consensus picture. But what does the evidence say?

Starts With A Bang

Ask Ethan: Can we detect dark matter if it’s truly collisionless?

Dark matter’s hallmark is that it gravitates, but shows no sign of interacting under any other force. Does that mean we’ll never detect it?

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Scientists are searching for dark matter particles that are trillions or even quadrillion times lighter than the more traditional searches.

Starts With A Bang

No matter how you interpret the data, dark energy remains

Dark energy is one of the biggest mysteries in all the Universe. Is there any way to avoid “having to live with it?”

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