Time measurements, as in what exact second Mercury was observed transiting a particular background star, are generally much more precise than angular measurements.
Ah, right, that would be an even bigger problem with them than limited observations.
Part of the challenge is that different dark matter particles would be detected in different ways. An axion detector, say, is very precisely designed to detect axions. If the dark matter is something else, then no matter how good we make our axion detectors, they won’t detect it.
And of course we can also precisely design detectors for photinos or glueballs or sterile neutrinos or whatever other candidate dark matter particles you care to name. But if the actual dark matter particle is something the theorists haven’t gotten around to yet, none of those specialized detectors will amount to anything.
There is in fact some speculation on this point. Except it has nothing whatsoever to do with the Many Worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics. And every time we’ve thought we might catch some evidence of those other spaces, we’ve failed. It’s still not ruled out, but it’s looking pretty threadbare.
Via string theory?
SUPER string theory.
A group reports finding something, perhaps a clump of dark matter, perhaps a dwarf galaxy. It is causing gravitational lensing when they use a bunch of telescopes to look at a distant galaxy. The achievement is in finding something this small (only a million solar masses!) at this distance.
Whatever it is, it’s too dark to see. Relevant to this discussion, the more we look, and the more sophisticated our instruments are, the more we’ll find. We know something is out there doing a bunch of gravity, and we do occasionally get hints of what some of it might be.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson weighs in.
This is not the video I was thinking for @Jackknifed_Juggernaut but Dr. Becky explains it at a basic level very well (as usual)
Thanks. I need to watch more of her videos.
I’m not a physicist, so I don’t have much to contribute to the dark matter question, but one of my employees (most of whom were physicists) back before I retired worked at the Super Kamiokande before working with me. So I recognized those photomultiplier tubes right away as I find that stuff fascinating. Carry on!
