Red Dwarf Proxima Centauri – Hiding Dark Matter
Yes. The search for “Dark Matter” is over. Its been found thanks to the Dokkum and Conroy team.
We can all go celebrate, and then get back to work.
And it was staring us right in the face all along – as ordinary, but dim matter.
Admittedly it was fairly difficult for us to see.
Researchers have looked for Dark Matter for decades (MACHOs and RAMBOs). But their search lately was generally limited to looking for tiny matter; exotic sand grain size or smaller (WIMPs).It turns out a huge percentage of the missing matter “particles” are enormous, the size of stars; a very dim type of star called Red Dwarf.
Centauri Star Trio: Alpha Beta and Proxima Centauri (in the red circle.)
In fact, the next closest star to us (after our Sun), Proxima Centauri, is a Red Dwarf, a shining (dimly, we cannot see it with naked eyes) example of what has confounded “Dark Matter” researchers for decades.
Until about 2010, few suspected that Red Dwarf stars may be the most common type of star in our Universe. We now known that two-thirds, some 20, of our 30 nearest star neighbors are Red Dwarf stars. One estimate puts Red Dwarfs in our Milky Way at 75 percent of the stellar population making them the most common star type in our Milky Way.
However, because they are so dim, it is difficult to find more than a handful of them. (Because they are so difficult to detect, we don’t really know with much confidence how abundant they are in our own Milky Way. )
In our own Milky-Way spiral galaxy, Red Dwarfs seem to outnumber Sun-like stars by about a 100-1 ratio. Here is where recent sky studies by Pieter van Dokkum and Charlie Conroy come in. They found “there are about 1,000 red dwarfs in the biggest (Elliptical) galaxies for each sun-like star, and they account for about 60 percent of the mass of all the stars in these galaxies.”
Sixty percent of the mass of giant Elliptical galaxies, and yet we only learned Red Dwarfs were everywhere recently !
Since for every visible star like our Sun there are 1,000 Red Dwarfs, that should be almost exactly enough to account for any most heretofore “missing matter” in spiral galaxies. Seriously, when we redo the Virial Theorum (kinetic energy) calculations for a spiral galaxy – the amount of “missing matter” drops to a few percent of what was needed without Red Dwarfs.
Red Dwarfs “hiding” some 50 to 75 percent of “missing mass” in spiral galaxies could easily explain the anomalous galaxy rotation speeds that was up till now ascribed to the never (otherwise) detected “Dark Matter.”
One reason this is important to Cosmology, is that the leading “Big Bang” model, Lambda Cold Dark Matter, relies heavily (no pun intended) on the existence of Dark Matter; exotic, non-hot, non-visible, Dark Matter.
Red dwarfs abundance directly conflicts with that hypothesis, since this Dark Matter is clearly, though faintly, “visible” and not at all exotic.
Would you please turn out the lights when you are done celebrating ?
References:
Spectroscopic Confirmation of the Existence of Large, Diffuse Galaxies in the Coma Cluster, Van Dokkum, et all, April 2015
“A substantial population of low-mass stars in luminous elliptical galaxies” by
van Dokkum, Pieter G.; Conroy, Charlie 2010, Nature
# # #
For more reading, try —
Dark Matter Fizzles Again, by Chuck Gallo (check out the references at the end of his article)
New Light on Dark Stars: Red Dwarfs, Low-Mass Stars, Brown Dwarfs
Dark Matter, in Cosmology Glossary
“This discovery conflicts with that hypothesis, since this Dark Matter is clearly, though faintly, “visible” and not at all exotic.”
I had to reread the title of the blog after I saw the claim in my feed. As everyone familiar with cosmology knows, or should know, dark matter is both observed in the cosmic microwave background and observed to be non-baryonic matter. It is so easy to see that anyone can. [ http://galileospendulum.org/2012/02/17/the-genome-of-the-universe/ ]
That is, whatever particles dark matter are they aren’t hydrogen and helium such as in red dwarf stars. So what is the problem with this post? It is here: ” “… they account for about 60 percent of the mass of all the stars in these galaxies. … Sixty percent of the mass of giant Elliptical galaxies”. The published article describes the composition of ordinary matter, it makes no claims on dark matter. “Here we investigate the stellar mass function in elliptical galaxies by measuring the strength of the Na I doublet and the Wing-Ford molecular FeH band in their spectra.” [ http://arxiv.org/abs/1009.5992 ]
Thank you for your note about the discovery of gigantic newly found amounts of galaxy matter; that I (and others) hypothesize may be enough to explain any “missing mass” in galaxy and cluster rotations.
Dark Matter Never Seen Directly
You write “As everyone familiar with cosmology knows, or should know, dark matter is both observed in the cosmic microwave background and observed to be non-baryonic matter. It is so easy to see that anyone can.”
Unfortunately, that opinion conflicts with the view of “dark matter” researchers who will readily admit they have never directly observed “dark matter.”
The following is from a Q&A by Berkeley’s Cosmology department:
http://cdms.berkeley.edu/Education/DMpages/FAQ/question37.html
Next, I did review the link you provided, but couldn’t find anything supporting your claim.
However, let me suggest, that since you believe “dark matter” is so obvious, so visually apparent, let me encourage you to publish your ideas.
Red Dwarf Researchers Avoid Dark Matter Interpretations
You also wrote “The published article describes the composition of ordinary matter, it makes no claims on dark matter.”
That is correct, the researchers have tried to dodge interpretations of their work (and its implications) to the never-actually observed version of “dark matter.”
What caught my attention is that when 60 percent more mass is found in Elliptical galaxies, I expect some significant fraction of that will be, (and apparently has been), found in Spiral galaxies. If the newly found mass is sufficient, it will make galaxy rotation “missing mass” problem evaporate.
Thank you for the common sense lacking in so many physicists.
Dark Matter doesn’t exist and has not been detected. Matter manifests gravity. The over gravity rotation is not of that gravity, velocity reflecting the square root of matter. The over rotation is due to electromagnetic forces produced by homopolar motors. Galxies rotate by gravity as a slow speed. The masses are positively chatged and the rotation caused a circular current producing a magnetic B-field perpendicular to the plane.
Intergalactic electron flows into the galaxy. This produce a radial force eVxB=VxP/r.
The Momentum P=mV = eBr=euI, the Velocity V = (e/m)uI =( 176G) 1.25u I = =220Ikm/s. The electromagnetic force velocity is 220km/s per 1 amp of current.
Highly charged masses like bright suns move faster, dark less charged suns will be slower. This is the pattern. The strength of the B-Magnetic field will be strongest in the center and create jets of electromagnetic radiation and arcing.
This is the likely the “missing matter” not Dark matter. This is driven by electrons flow into galaxies. Hubble Pictures show the Universe is lit up like neon lights, electrons flowing in electric fields.