Dark Flow: Is our Galaxy moving towards a Primeval Structure?

In the October issue of Popular Science I ran across this very interesting article on Dark Flow...
I have found a link to that very story so you can read it for yourselves but some of the most compelling bits are as follows...

Cosmologists think the galaxies could be heading toward a very large primeval structure

Scientists will try to figure out if all galaxy clusters are susceptible to dark flow. If so, we’d know that its cause stretches back to our universe’s beginning, lending credence to the theory that something we can’t see is exerting its gravitational force on everything we can see.

While they admit Dark Flow is a huge unknown they go on to say the phenomena like dark flow, may show the influence of very distant structures that date back to the time of the big bang or beyond...

I don't pretend to understand what all this means but I find it all so very cool!

Full story at POPSCI

Dam!! First they come out with Dark Matter...then Dark Cloud and now new thing called Dark Flow. They haven't even figured out what the first Dark matter is actually all about. I hope they get better results in uncovering all this mystery.

reply to post by DaddyBare
Hiya DB, I won't pretend to understand cosmology either. When I find myself thinking I have a grasp, it quickly slips away. The article is interesting stuff. It illustrates that science is full of wonder. The universe isn't expanding from a 'central point.' Galaxies are moving away from whatever point in the universe the observer is positioned. Dark flow, dark matter, Higgs Bosuns etc. Every answer leads to bigger questions and puzzles. Cheesy axiom...the more we know, the more we realize how little we know.

reply to post by Kandinsky


What I find most interesting is how Science is moving away from the neat and simple mathematical models of yesteryear and leaping headlong into H.G. Wells territory...

Okay I know Popular Science isn't what one would call a real Technical paper or definitive work and that quote "heading toward a very large primeval structure" called up an image of some ancient crystal castle floating off in deepest darkest space...

Who knows maybe its true... would mean the universe I was taught about isn't nearly as boring a place I they said it was

What this tells you, is that the universe is a vast information source and we are primitive in our understanding.

It's like Dr. Kaku says, we are a type 0 civilization and have a long way to go.

Science takes 2 steps forward then 5 steps back.

What's dark matter/energy made of, dark flow, branes, m-theory, quantum loop gravity, parallel universes, holographic principle, is the universe a quantum computer and more.

Sometimes I wonder if on a quantum level all of these theories are correct. Maybe these theories are in a state of superposition and when we look to measure these theories they will all be probable. This means we will never find information to verify these things but we will find information that supports these things enough to make them valid theories.

[edit on 18-11-2009 by Matrix Rising]

Originally posted by December_Rain
Dam!! First they come out with Dark Matter...then Dark Cloud and now new thing called Dark Flow. They haven't even figured out what the first Dark matter is actually all about. I hope they get better results in uncovering all this mystery.

I can almost guarantee they won't get better results uncovering the cause of this latest mystery, here's why (from artcle linked in OP):

It will be hard to learn more, though, since the source of the dark flow appears to be at least 46.5 billion light-years away, much farther than we can observe.

So how much are we going to learn about something that far away that's as far as we know, unobservable? Probably not much.

Dark matter shouldn't be such a mystery. After all we live on a non-luminous body so why scientists think it's a stretch to assume there are lots of non-luminous bodies to account for the dark matter is beyond me.

www.sciencemag.org...

San Antonio--A widely reported press conference at last month's meeting of the American Astronomical Society left the impression that the long-standing mystery of the identity of the universe's "dark matter" had been solved. At the meeting a multi-institutional team reported that it might consist of the ordinary matter contained in MACHOs, massive compact halo objects, rather than the exotic particles some theorists favor. But as even those team members concede, the number of MACHO sightings they've now made is still too small to come to a firm conclusion about whether they can account for all dark matter.

That mystery may be solved as our ability to observe MACHOs (Massive Astronomical Compact Halo Objects) improves. But right now we don't even know how many more dwarf planets like Pluto are in our own solar system, and we're trying to debate the presence or absence of other dark matter in other galaxies?

en.wikipedia.org...

It is suspected that at least another 40 known objects in the Solar System are dwarf planets,[8] and estimates are that up to 200 dwarf planets may be found when the entire region known as the Kuiper belt is explored

It's just hard to see something far away that's not lit up, that's why we can't see it. But improvements in technology might help solve that problem and answer the dark matter questions.

Dark energy is still mysterious, I don't pretend to know the answer to that one but I'm not assuming it's the "cosmological constant" which Einstein referred to as his biggest mistake, though I guess that can't be ruled out.

There is no real evidence for the "dark flow", as pointed out by the principal of WMAP, who is in a good position to know.

It does make a good headline though.

This should not be confused with our current and rather rapid journey towards the Great Attractor.


[edit on 18/11/2009 by LightFantastic]

reply to post by LightFantastic


Maybe the force moving us is dark flow and the thing we're moving towards is The Great Attractor... same thing different name?
I guess only time research and open minds will tell