this post was submitted on 18 Mar 2024
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Astronomy

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Heh

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[–] maryjayjay@lemmy.world 15 points 6 months ago (1 children)

When we discover someone we don't understand we often make a simplistic metaphor to fit the data until we have better understanding. Like the Bohr model of the atom, or Newton's theory of gravity. Dark matter plugs the hole right now and does it with a minimum of contrivance (Occam and whatnot)

[–] kvartsdan@lemmynsfw.com 0 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Or the aether or the flat earth model. I know all this, but I still believe it is a bad and lazy model that stopped a lot of people from trying to find something else that could explain what we're seeing, or not seeing actually. There is too much gravity, yes. What could produce that effect? Shit we aren't seeing, dark matter, sure. But what if there's no 'extra' matter? What other thing could produce the appearance of too much matter? Is time changing in some way we don't know? Is light slowing down/going faster due to the expansion? Is there something else that we thinks is constant that is actually changing over time? Should I really smoke this much? I don't know any of this obviously but I have a distinct feeling we are missing something with 'dark matter' as a model. I get why we use it, but I don't like it. When we create a model, we fix it in our minds and it is very hard to break free from that mindset. Look what it took before we accepted that time is relative. What else is relative? What, besides mass, aren't we seeing?