Celebrate the hunt for 'Dark Matter', a mysterious substance lurking in the universe, that cannot be seen by the naked eye.
It's no coincidence that Dark Matter Day was chosen to be celebrated on 31 October 2020 coinciding with the festival of Halloween.
Both Dark Matter and Halloween are symbols of mystery and all things eerie.
NASA celebrated Halloween by making 'Galactic Horror' posters. Also, known as 'Cosmic Frights'.
Check them out: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/new-nasa-posters-feature-cosmic-frights-for-halloween
They also uploaded a picture of an O-Type star nebula, lovingly dubbed as the 'Jack-o-Lantern' Nebula for Halloween spirit. It was snapped by our darling Hubble telescope.
Catch the article: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA23403
Interesting to know, 'Nebulas' can be sites of birth or death of a star. They complete their cycle of life. They die somewhat the same way they are born.
Nebulas are massive clouds of dust and gas.
Some nebulae are formed due to explosions of dying stars. Those are called supernovae.
Some of them are sites of the birth of stars.
It's a nebula that looks like a Jack-o-Lantern. It's a carved out cloud of gas. An O-type star, ie. a star that is 15-20 times heavier than the sun is responsible for the cloud of dust and gas.
It's an explosion emitting powerful outflows of radiation and particles.
On the occasion of Dark Matter Day, I attended a LIVE youtube stream 'Ask a Scientist' on IUCAA's channel 'IUCAA Sci-POP'. IUCAA is the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA). It's an autonomous institution set up on the premises of the Pune University, Maharashtra. It was information on Dark Matter and the development in its research.
It was intriguing to learn about how dark matter reacts with normal matter and the various techniques used to observe it.
It led me to dig up different sites and do a little research on my own.
A Dark Matter Treasure Hunt is what I did on Halloween. I'll be sharing my chest of gold in this succulent.
I feel like an intergalactic pirate. The fact aside that I haven't moved an inch from my work desk. Heck, I could be the next Jack Sparrow. Sorry. Captain Jack Sparrow.
Scientists discovered a type of matter that was not visible to the naked eye. They deduced it was not the same matter you and I are composed of. They named this newfound matter, 'Dark Matter'.
Its behavior is similar to normal matter when considering it under the effects of gravitation. That is, it attracts normal or dark matter and follows the inverse square law.
While the exact composition of Dark Matter is still a mystery, scientists have many calculated guesses.
Most scientists think that Dark Matter is made up of non-baryonic matter ie. not containing any baryons (ie. Protons, Neutrons, Electrons).
Neutralinos are massive hypothetical particles heavier and slower than neutrinos. Scientists think they may be a component, however, the existence of such a particle is yet to be spotted.
My favorite theory is that Dark Matter is composed of innumerable, minuscule black holes. It would be fun to observe that.
According to scientists, the density of dark matter is 7 x 10^-30 gm/cm^3. To make it easier to visualize, the density of water is 1 gm/cm^3 and the density of air is approximately 1.3 x 10^-3 gm/cm^3.
It is evident from these facts that the density of Dark Matter is extremely less as compared to normal matter, therefore making it harder to detect.
Scientists while conducting various experiments discovered that, the amount of visible mass a particular star had was much less than the mass needed for the gravitational force by which it was attracting nearby bodies.
The only reasonable explanation for this was that there was another type of invisible matter in the universe. DARK MATTER.
Various complex indirect and direct methods are used by scientists to detect dark matter. Another popular method is the collider searching. Gravitational Lensing is more of an observational evidence than a method of detection. Yet, it is one of the optimum methods to detect dark matter.
Gravitational Lensing is a phenomenon that, though dark matter can't be seen, they can detect its influence by observing how the gravity of massive star clusters containing dark matter can bend and distort the light coming from distant galaxies located behind the cluster.
The Hubble telescope at NASA captures these pictures and helps the scientists determine where the dark matter may be present.
Space consists of a majority of empty space. Matter is almost negligible in space. Space also has low pressure. All these factors contribute to the fact that space is a near-perfect vacuum.
68% dark energy, 27% dark matter, 5% normal matter.
Dark Matter is 27% of the universe. All visible normal matter adds up to less than 5% of the universe.
Dark Matter has similar gravitational properties as normal matter. Hence, it would contribute to the slowing down of the expansion of the universe, as gravity is an attractive force and binds everything together. Some even thought that this would lead to the contraction of the universe.
However, observing the nature of the universe, it is expanding, rapidly. Scientists were not able to explain this phenomenon on the basis of Dark Matter.
Hence, introducing Dark Energy.
Dark Energy is the name given to the mysterious force, discovered by scientists which is causing the rate of expansion of the universe to expand over time.
According to scientists, dark energy has a repulsive property. For the first time ever scientists have encountered a repulsive gravity property.
As one of the scientists in the IUCAA video rightly said, Dark Matter and Dark Energy seem like arch-enemies of one another. One trying to pull the universe together and the other trying to pull it apart. Quite a thrilling plot.
At present, the concept of negative mass is used in various hypothetical technologies. It is not possible currently to physically represent it on earth.
However, the concept of negative matter is used to explain Dark Energy (Phantom Energy). Negative kinetic energy, as well as negative pressure, are some of the properties of Dark Energy.
CONCLUSION:
Lots of extensive research is being conducted by scientists and astrophysicists to learn more about dark matter and dark energy.
However, the truth is that it is still unknown territory and sufficient research has not been carried out to surely say what's out there.
It is interesting and mysterious, quite fun to be unraveling the mysteries of the universe and learning about them.
Dark Matter Day was an initiative to excite the public for the hunt of Dark Matter.
So, 'What can you do to contribute to the research?'.
Citizen Science is an initiative by NASA. In it, interested citizens of the world can participate in projects that NASA needs help with.
The projects don't need specialized equipment, just a mobile-laptop equivalent, and an internet connection.
One example of a project, the public participated in was to identify Gravitational Lensing from a series of photographs.
Hundreds of instances of Gravitational Lensing were spotted, all thanks to the masses.
It helped tremendously in the search for Dark Matter.
Check it out! CITIZEN SCIENCE: https://science.nasa.gov/citizenscience
FUN PART!
While the major part of my succulent was factual, I want this part to be playful.
As the concept of Dark Matter is not yet well discovered, it is an excellent concept for science fiction writers to play around with.
The sky is the limit for hypothetical scenarios to be formed.
Dark Matter has found its way into POP CULTURE through various fiction like Star Trek, Super Mario Galaxy, and The X-Files.
These pieces of fiction let their imagination run wild and try to imagine what Dark Matter could possibly be like.
In Super Mario Galaxy, dark matter is depicted as a purplish liquid that disintegrates people on contact.
In Star Trek, dark matter is a region of space through which no light is emitted.
In The X-Files, dark matter did a marvelous cameo in the episode 'Soft Light'. According to the plot, a lab accident, caused the shadow of a scientist to behave like a black hole. The shadow had the power to turn matter into puddles of energy.
It's lovely to imagine that once upon a time, sci-fi writers used to dwell on topics such as lunar and Mars landings, which came into practical existence decades later.
It's fun to think whether the Dark Matter science fiction today could possibly act as a blueprint for scientists in the future.
"ALL TYPES OF MATTER MATTER! " - Sayali Patukale
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