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The present theory concerns the elimination of dark energy, not dark matter. The existence of dark matter has been demonstrated beyond any doubt through observations of a collision between two galaxy clusters. In a nutshell, the clusters were mostly made up of high-energy plasma, and when they collided almost all of the plasma remained at the point of collision due to electromagnetic interactions between the gases. However, the dark matter in the clusters, which was previously difficult to observe independently, passed through the point of the collision (that is, through each other) as though nothing had happened. The electromagnetic interactions trapped the visible baryonic matter in one spot while the dark matter drifted off into space, allowing us to observe it independently via the effects of gravitational lensing.



You know, you could drop your comment directly into a Star Trek the Next Generation script and it would fit right in.

By the time I got to the end, I was reading it in Geordie LaForge's voice in my head.


Here's a funky explanation with buckets of water and balls, with the astro photos to go along:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRtGUCLjQ3w


Wait - so in a nutshell, we actually have observations that can reasonably be assumed to be dark matter causing lensing?





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