Dark Science & Matter - History Creation and Invention

I was wondering what Dark Science is? And started reading about it. In this article, I am trying to compile some research from various sources about this topic. This should help one understand the basics of Dark Matter.

History of the Dark

The Ancient Greeks were very smart and had made the universe simple; according to the Greek scientists, all our universe comprising are four elements, namely: earth, fire, water and air. 

Their theories are simple and elegant, which states that by combining all four unique elements in special ways, one could produce all the diversity of nature from what we find around us. For example, earth and fire produce anything dry, air and water produce anything wet.

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Aristotle also suggested that there was a fifth element aether because it seemed strange that would make the stars of earthly elements. It would surprise him to learn that they comprised of  many elements found on earth and are so hot they could be said to be on fire all the time!

You might think this theory is so simple and easy. As science progressed, the theory could predict nothing that could be measured because measurement is the basis of experimental science, hence the theory was proven wrong. But the Greeks were smart and in the 5th century B. C, Leucippus an influential Greek philosopher of that time, came up with an interesting idea which stated that everything consisted of tiny, indivisible stuff called atoms. (Though Dalton came with the original proof). After centuries of experiments and thoughts, it has been established that proper elements like hydrogen, iron and copper etc. can be broken down into small individual stuff called as atoms.

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The four elements were even used to describe the four temperaments a person could have, and Hippocrates(Greek Physician) used these four elements to describe the four “senses of humour” found in the body. These theories stated that the temperaments and humour needed to be in balance with each other for a person to be well, both mentally and physically!.

Dark matter

The only thing wrong with Leucippus’s idea was that atoms were divisible. His atoms could only explain an infinitesimal part of what the universe is made of. Leucippus’s atoms only contained 5% of what the universe is made of. The rest of the universe about 95% is only the dark universe which comprises dark matter and dark energy (known up to date by physicists). And how do we know this? 

Well, we know that because we see things when we look at them; the light reflects off the atoms and we can see things. When we look out into space, we see many stars, planetary nebulae, etc.

Scientists first measured the motion of groups of galaxies with the help of new-age instruments in 1930. They found out that there was not much visible stuff up there to hold the galaxies together. Afterwards, there was much research on other galaxies which proved the following result. 

From what we now know, the galaxies should continuously fly apart. But they don’t, so we confirmed that there must be some stuff up there which we cannot see and this stuff which we could not see was called and is known as dark matter. 

Originally Fritz Zwicky (also remembered as the father of Dark Matter) had discovered dark matter by the “virial theorem”, which led him to propose evidence of unseen mass. So starting the debate on what is that we now call dark matter (Originally known as the missing mass).

We still don’t know much about dark matter. Probably, dark matter is here and even probably going through our body as you are reading this blog now. You can prove the existence dark matter.

Dark Energy

Assuming the existence of dark energy is the most popular way to explain expanding of the universe at speeding up rate.

In the standard model of cosmology, dark energy currently accounts for almost threem-quarters of the total mass-energy of the universe.

The simplest explanation for dark energy is that it is simply the "cost of having space": that is, a volume of space has some intrinsic, fundamental energy.

Now we know that earth is a planet revolving around the sun and the sun is a part of the solar system. The solar system is a part of the Milky Way and the Milky Way (galaxy) is a part of the universe. With more intense research it is confirmed that not all things are moving away from each other but the universe is also continuously expanding. This has to be some kind of energy pushing this universe making it to constantly expand just like one provides energy for accelerating an aeroplane in the sky. Scientists believe this theory and named this energy which is known till date and called it as the dark energy. With today's research scientists can tell that dark energy makes up about 72% of the universe and dark matter makes up 23% of the universe and atoms make up 5% of the universe.

Creation of the Dark Matter 

Now researchers and quantum physicists and the scientists working in the LHC (large hadron collider) in Geneva Switzerland believe we can make 27% of dark matter and combine it into things we can see, they are trying to create dark matter by using the particle accelerator.

So you might wonder how this even works: if you take two proton beams move them in opposite directions and speed them up to the speed of light, then you create four collision points for the beams cross each other and smash into each other (Protons up of smaller compartments called Quarks and Gluons). In most of the collisions, they pass each other with no significant collisions, but in 1 in a million collisions; they smash into each other.

Image Source: Could we create dark matter - Rolf Landua

In the collisions, two components hit each other so violently that most of the collision energy is set free (E = MC^2) and produce thousands of new particles in only these types of collisions they may produce the theorized dark matter.

The collision points are surrounded by detectors which contain over 100 million sensors, these sensors gather information on the particles just like a huge 3d camera. Sensors collect information including their trajectory, their charge and their energy once these are processed the computers can detect a collision as an image (different particles are colour coded).

The scientists collect data and determine what each of this particle is, for example, the particle may be an electron, a muon or a neutrino, the detectors at the same time take snapshots at billions of times a second. The intractable problem is that the particles we are looking for may be unstable in such a case they may get decayed into more familiar particles until they reach the sensors.

You never know when the physicists will find the dark matter for you to explore more. Scientists are still collecting and doing research in this space.

References: 

TED: Ideas worth spreading www.ted.com