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Dark Matter and Interplanetary Space Travel


AmpsterMan

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Okay, Dark Matter is one of those things that just makes my brain have a BSOD. (most science after like 1880 does this though)

Afer reading this article, and understanding about 4.9 % of it, I got to thinking. If most matter in galaxies is dark matter, then isn't most matter in The Solar System Dark Matter? If this is the case then how can we travel with high levels of precision within our star system?

If I can make a preliminary answer, I would say it is because Dark Matter concentration is inversely proportional squared to baryonic matter concentration.

This conclusion of course brought to you by my imagination.

So please discuss your answers to the question; furthermore feel free to discuss dark matter in general.

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We seem to live in an area relatively devoid of dark matter, actually. If it were inversely proportional to regular matter, we'd see high concentrations of it in the intergalactic void rather than in galaxies themselves, and it would appear to have an antigravity-like effect. I think MOND has got the closest to the truth myself, which does away with dark matter altogether (although it can't explain a couple of things).

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The actual density of dark matter in any given area is low, leading to it not really affecting amything at this kind of scale. It's only when you have extremely large 'empty' areas that the effects build up.

Edited by Kryten
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This is pure speculation, but if dark matter doesn't interact with normal matter then the affects that caused our solar system to coalesce wont have affected it. It could either me a more or less uniform cloud of particles moving at galactic orbital speeds or perhaps it clumps into it's own systems. - To tie into another thread, that would give a possible invisible nemesis causing periodic extinctions.

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Kryten is correct.

tomf: Dark matter DOES interact with normal matter gravitationally.

Yes, I meant that all the mechanisms by which matter looses the kinetic and potential energy in order to form clumps would be denied to it. The supernova shock wave wouldn't have affected it and the collisions required to form solid bodies are impossible, at least with bodies composed of normal matter.

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