Comment Visualization (Score 4, Interesting) 62
A not totally off-topic question: Can anyone recommend a free data visualization and analysis/plotting package? Something a bit more powerful than gnuplot
A not totally off-topic question: Can anyone recommend a free data visualization and analysis/plotting package? Something a bit more powerful than gnuplot
Personally (I am a lay person astronomically), I think Dark Matter raises more questions than it answers. While I acknowledge the effort, time and rigor that many astrophysicists have put into studying these phenomena, I still feel that dark matter, a substance which is invisible, intangible, and undetectable expect through its gravitational effects is too far of a step for physics to take without more evidence. I feel as a theory, dark matter is only a stepping stone on the way to a better explanation for what we are observing.
That certainly is the nightmare version of Dark Matter. However, most (if not all?) dark matter models do not in fact propose (other than gravitationally) noninteracting particles. They certainly must interact very weak with each other and ordinary matter but not per se not at all.
Dark Matter models make in fact verifiable predictions, such as annihilation products and rates (positrons in this case). They are valid science!
No amount of careful planning will ever replace dumb luck.