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Author Topic:   Alternative Cosmology?
Taq
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Posts: 10085
Joined: 03-06-2009
Member Rating: 5.6


Message 6 of 25 (559804)
05-11-2010 5:58 PM
Reply to: Message 1 by CosmicAtheist
05-10-2010 11:17 PM


Do you think the recent results for the XENON100 will stimulate a new pool of ideas on our current cosmological model (BBT) or perhaps seek to formulate a new model/competing model all together?
I think these results will stimulate a new pool of ideas on how to detect dark matter particles. The gravitational effects of dark matter are accepted by most, and the XENON100 results (or rather non-results) do not cast doubt on this data.
To use an analogy, in the generation after Galileo many were still skeptical of heliocentrism and they had a similar gripe. No one had observed stellar parallax. Surely we should see stars wobbling in the night sky if we were moving about the sun. Well, they were wobbling but not as much as some people expected them too. They had to wait for methodology and technology to catch up. This may very well be the case for dark matter.

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 Message 1 by CosmicAtheist, posted 05-10-2010 11:17 PM CosmicAtheist has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 7 by CosmicAtheist, posted 05-11-2010 6:07 PM Taq has replied

  
Taq
Member
Posts: 10085
Joined: 03-06-2009
Member Rating: 5.6


Message 21 of 25 (559843)
05-11-2010 8:01 PM
Reply to: Message 7 by CosmicAtheist
05-11-2010 6:07 PM


Perhaps, which is why I am not completely against the BBT, but I have read some websites with stimulating new ideas as you mentioned. But don't you think after 30 years of failing to detect dark matter that there should be more funding towards alternative explanations like plasma cosmology? I am not saying they should ditch dark matter but open up new possibilities.
Plasma cosmology - Wikipedia Wiki on Plasma Cosmology, interesting stuff.
I won't pretend to be an expert in this field, but that usually doesn't stop me from offering my opinion.
From my understanding, Plasma Cosmology (PC) has a fundamental problem. You have to work through the "back door" to arrive at observations using PC. That is, only in very special cases will PC produce such observations as the temperature fluctuations in the CMB. For a scientist, this sets off very loud alarms. This is starkly contrasted by the BBT in which the observations we see are the exact observations we would expect to see. The prime example is how the BBT is able to very accurately predict the characteristics of the CMB. PC doesn't even predict that the CMB should be there, and has to twist over itself to explain it.
When comparing the BBT and PC there really is no comparison. The BBT says that certain things just HAVE to be there while PC can only say that these same things could perhaps exist, or not.
And again, I am by no means an expert but this is what I have gleaned through my reading. If I am way off base please let me know.

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 Message 7 by CosmicAtheist, posted 05-11-2010 6:07 PM CosmicAtheist has not replied

  
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