Saturday: Dr. Knop Talks Astronomy - How We Know That Dark Matter Exists
You’re invited to the next edition of Dr. Knop Talks Astronomy, in which Dr. Knop will explain how we know that dark matter exists.
Date: Saturday, May 2, 2009
Time: 10:00 AM Pacific Time (SL Time)
Location: The large amphitheater on the sim named StellaNova SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/StellaNova/213/210/32/
Abstract: Modern cosmology tells us that the majority of the Universe is made up of stuff whose nature is largely unknown to us. Two thirds of it is Dark Energy; most of the rest is Dark Matter, the subject of this talk. Dark Matter interacts with normal matter through gravity, but otherwise it interacts hardly at all. Yet, we have very high confidence that this mysterious Dark Matter really does exist. Because it doesn’t interact with light, we haven’t seen it glowing, nor have we observed it absorbing background light as we’ve seen with dust clouds. All of the evidence we have for Dark Matter comes from its gravitational interaction with other matter, and with light. Yet, this evidence is extremely compelling. In this talk, I will attempt to convince you that there is no reasonable doubt that Dark Matter exists.
This science talk is intended for the general public. All are welcome. It’s part of a series of popular talks called Dr. Knop Talks Astronomy. Dr. Knop was on one of the teams that discovered the accelerating expansion of the universe. Feel free to ask questions or make comments. Produced in association with the Meta Institute for Computational Astrophysics (MICA).
For more information, see http://mica-vw.org/
Link on the Official SL Events calendar: https://secure-web7.secondlife.com/events/event.php?id=2643613&date=1241247600
Saturday: Dr. Knop Talks Astronomy - “Neptune and Vulcan: Dark Matter in the Solar System”
The next installment in the popular astronomy talks series Dr. Knop Talks Astronomy is on Saturday, and you’re invited! Here are the details:
Talk Title: Neptune and Vulcan: Dark Matter in the Solar System
Date: Saturday, April 18, 2009
Time: 10:00 AM Pacific Time (SL Time)
Location: The large amphitheater on the sim named StellaNova SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/StellaNova/213/210/32/
Abstract: The cosmological Dark Matter is one example of a more general thing that we might call “dark matter” with lowercase letters— that is, something that has not been observed directly, but whose existence we infer because of its gravitational effects. In the 19th century, there was dark matter in the Solar System: Uranus was showing deviations in its orbit that could not be explained by the action of the Sun and the other known planets. That led to the discovery of Neptune. Similarly, deviations in the orbit of Mercury led to the postulated planet Vulcan inside Mercury’s orbit. However, it turned out that Vulcan didn’t exist at all, and that the answer to the question of Mercury’s orbit was a modification of our theory of gravity.
This science talk is intended for the general public. All are welcome. It’s part of a series of popular talks called Dr. Knop Talks Astronomy. Dr. Knop was on one of the teams that discovered the accelerating expansion of the universe. Feel free to ask questions or make comments. Produced in association with the Meta Institute for Computational Astrophysics (MICA).
For more information, see http://mica-vw.org/
Link on the Official SL Events calendar: https://secure-web2.secondlife.com/events/event.php?id=2595217&date=1240038000
