slevesque writes:
''Looking into alternatives'' and ''giving up'' are two very different things. My question is perfectly reasonable, and the vulcan analogy appropriate.
I think the analogy is apt, but perhaps strained. The hypothetical Vulcan was merely difficult to detect. But there was no belief that it would be impossible to detect.
It may well be that dark matter is impossible to detect other than through its gravitational effect. There may never be anything other than highly circumstantial evidence for dark matter. Unlike the case of Vulcan, every failure to detect dark matter may mean simply dropping one particular dark matter hypothesis.