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Dark Matter and a String of Pearls
Dick Bain
As astronomers have mapped the universe, they have discovered that the galaxies are arranged in long filaments, and they theorize that the filamentary structure is due to the presence of a mysterious substance known as dark matter. How could the hypothesized dark matter be responsible for the structure of the universe?
One current theory of universe building is as follows: Dark matter appeared before ordinary matter and assembled into long filaments. When ordinary matter appeared, it was attracted to the dark matter and collected along the filaments of dark matter. Then the ordinary matter formed into galaxies, perhaps at points of dark matter concentration within the filaments. But what is this dark matter, and how do we know it even exists?
In 1933 astronomer Fritz Zwicky noted that the apparent mass of the Coma cluster of galaxies seemed higher than calculated from the luminosity (brightness) of its constituent galaxies. He surmised that 90% of the matter in the cluster is not visible. He named this invisible substance "dark matter." Later on, after astronomers were able to measure the rotational speeds of galaxies, they noted that there didn't seem to be enough visible matter to prevent galaxies from flying apart due to their rotation. The fast moving outer stars of the galaxy ought to be thrown off into intergalactic space due to centrifugal force. Astronomers still agree with Zwicky that 90% of the matter in the universe is dark matter.
Another sign of dark matter presence is so-called gravitational lensing. A prediction derived from Einstein's Theory of Relativity is that light should be bent around a massive object. When a massive cluster of galaxies lies between a more distant galaxy and us, the collective gravitational field of the group of galaxies can magnify the light from the more distant one like a magnifying glass. This was observed first in 1979 by astronomers when they found four identical images of a distant quasar.
These sorts of magnified images have been observed many times since then, especially by the Hubble Space Telescope. The visible matter in such massive galactic groups is not enough to account for the amount of magnification observed, so astronomers theorize that the effect must be due to dark matter associated with each galaxy in the group. Furthermore, galactic groups, like individual galaxies, apparently do not have sufficient ordinary matter to keep them from flying apart, and astronomers again suspect that it is dark matter supplying the extra gravitational force to keep them together. But though we can see the effects, so far we can't detect the dark matter.
Of course, there is some dark matter that we know is ordinary matter, but is not visible--such as clouds of gas and dust that don't radiate visible light. However, some of this sort of dark matter can be seen in the infrared portion of the light spectrum. Researchers can see enough of this material to estimate how much of it there is, and they calculate that there is only enough gas, dust, and non-luminous bodies to account for a small percent of the dark matter in the universe.
Other researchers have theorized that the missing dark matter may be simply large numbers of dark bodies such as so-called brown dwarfs, bodies that aren't quite large enough to become a star. But by observing in infrared light and using other methods, astronomers have been able to detect some of these bodies. It does not appear that there is nearly enough of this type of dark matter to account for the observed effects.
Another theory holds that most of the dark matter is composed of WIMP's, Weakly Interacting Massive Particles. WIMP's are supposedly very massive, but we are unable to detect them because they interact only slightly with ordinary matter, except by way of gravity. No one seems to have one theory adequate to explain the observed effects that explains everything, satisfies everyone, and is verifiable. But there is another concept that can explain why the galaxies are assembled into long filaments. This concept is called Paradise gravity.
The authors of The Urantia Book tell us that Paradise gravity works by providing paths of lessened resistance to the passage of galaxies. (Paper 11, Sec. 7, Par. 6) The authors claim this is how the galaxies are kept within the confines of what they term the superuniverse level and the first outer space level. This would also explain why they claim there is a clear zone between the superuniverse level and the first outer space level. But there is a problem with the astronomy of The Urantia Book. Our astronomers do not see things that correspond to the description of seven superuniverses and an outer space level. And to further complicate matters, the descriptions in the book are so ambiguous that there are many different opinions as
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