Download Dark Energy and Dark Matter - Appalachian State University

Justin Austenfeld and Kayla Zimmerman
August 3, 2012
Summer Bridge 2012, Appalachian State University
What is matter?
• Baryonic matter
• anything that we can see
• 17% of all the matter in the universe
• less than 5% of everything in the entire
universe
http://hubblesite.org/gallery/album/star/pr2012001f/large_w
eb/npp/all/
What is the rest? Where is it?
What is dark matter?
• Dark matter
•
•
•
•
•
discovered in 1933 by Fritz Zwicky
http://scienceblogs.com/startswithabang/
emits no light
2011/03/01/good-ideas-bad-ideas-mondand/
cannot see it directly
83% of all of the matter in the universe
20% of our universe
Well, how do we know it exists?
Proof of dark matter
http://spiff.rit.edu/classes/phys240/lectures/grav_lens/grav_lens.html
• Gravitational lensing
• a lot of mass = a lot of gravity
• a lot of gravity = bending of light
Proof of dark matter (cont.)
• Fermi Gamma-ray Space
Telescope
• Gamma rays are
produced by colliding
dark matter particles
• Fermi was launched four
years ago to detect
collisions
• Not enough data to prove
anything yet
http://fermi.gsfc.nasa.gov/
Dark matter in recent news
• A filament found
between two galaxy
clusters
• 58 million light-years
in length, 3 million
thick
• 40,000+ galaxies
behind the area were
observed
http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2010/07/a-new-way-tomap-the-universe.html
Dark energy
• Discovered in 1998
• Universe is expanding, and
expansion is accelerating
• Theories to explain dark
energy:
1. Complex property of space
itself
2. The universe has its own form
of energy
3. New form of dynamic force
4. Einstein’s theory of a
“cosmological constant” is
flawed
http://metanerds.blogspot.com/2012/02/darkenergy-may-not-exist-in-space.html
Acknowledgements
• Dr. Burris
• Dr. Tashakkori
• Dr. Schwab
• Dr. Kurtz
• Matthew SeGall
• The Summer Bridge Program
• Appalachian State University
• The National Science Foundation
…And viewers like you. THANK YOU!
Cited Sources
FRS110. “History of Dark Matter.”
http://blogs.princeton.edu/frs110/s2005/darkmatter/2_history_of_dark_matter
(accessed 7/22/2012)
Giancoli, D. C. Physics for Scientists and Engineers with Modern Physics. Pearson
Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, 2009.
FRS110. “Dark Energy.” http://blogs.princeton.edu/frs110/s2005/darkenergy/
(accessed 7/22/2012)
NASA. “SIM PlanetQuest to Predict Date of Cosmic Collision.”
http://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/starsgalaxies/Collision_Feature.html
(accessed 7/22/2012)
NASA. “What Is Dark Matter?” http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/912/features/what-is-dark-matter.html (accessed 7/22/2012)
NASA. “Dark Energy, Dark Matter.” http://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/focusareas/what-is-dark-energy/ (accessed 7/26/2012)
Los Angeles Times. “Dark matter filament found, scientists say.”
http://articles.latimes.com/2012/jul/04/science/la-sci-dark-matter-filament20120705 (accessed 7/26/2012)
Discovery Channel Online. “10 Things you didn't know about dark energy.”
http://dsc.discovery.com/space/top-10/dark-energy/index-03.html . (accessed
7/26/12)