Caption: an interview dialogue
- Are dark matter models unsuited to explain observations? [the “dark matter models” and “to explain observations” parts are poorly edited onto the image, overlaying the original text]
- In my view, they are unsuited.
- Why?
- That’s my opinion, don’t ask me why.
End of caption
Dark matter is the mainstream among physicists, but internet commentators keep saying it can’t be right because it “feels off”.
Of course, skepticism is good for science! You just need to justify it more than saying the mainstream “feels off”.
For people who prefer alternative explanations over dark matter for non-vibe-based reasons, I would love to hear your thoughts! Leave a comment!
Isn’t the question in itself wrong? “Are dark matter models unsuited to explain observations” suggests that dark matter is a model we invented to explain something else. But as I understand it, dark matter is the observation itself and we need to come up with an explanation for it. Cf. Angela Collier’s video on exactly this.
But it is a model we invented no? To explain the astrophysical and cosmological observations.
Among all those observations, a commonality is that it looks like there is something that behaves like matter (as opposed to vacuum or radiation) and interact mostly via gravity (as opposed to electromagnetically, etc.). That’s why we invented dark matter.
The “it is unsuited” opinion in this meme is to poke at internet commentators who say that there must be an alternate explanation that does not involve new matter, because according to them all things must reflect light otherwise it would feel off.
Once you believe dark matter exists, you still need to come up with an explanation of what that matter actually is. That’s a separate question.
(I’m not trying to make fun of people who study MOND or the like of that. just the people who non-constructively deny dark matter based on vibes.)
No, as far as I understand it, it isn’t something we invented. It is rather a placeholder for observations we made. In many different contexts we observe something that is matter but that doesn’t seem to interact with anything else. We call this dark matter. And then there are theories of dark matter that try to explain the observations of dark matter. But dark matter is that what we observe, not a theory or invention.