There is something with enormous gravity influencing the movement of astronomical systems in ways for which we have no explanation. It is meant to be a placeholder until we can figure it out. This has worked before, e.g., Neptune, and perhaps planet 9 soon.
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Trust the model that has substantial predictive power, then back fill the holes as we learn more.
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Dark matter is essentially a dummy variable: something that is hypothesized to exist in order to balance the equations — similar to the role that “luminiferous aether” played before Einstein’s discovery of relativity. The next Einstein will figure out what’s really going on.
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We don't actually know that for sure! It really could be WIMPs that do satisfy the intensional definition of some sort of "dark matter". Or it could turn out to be like ether, an artifact of wrong equations. And you need a Michelson-Morley not an Einstein for this job.
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I was under the impression it was basically an extra-fancy fudge factor
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That’s more dark energy (cosmological constant). Dark matter is a bit more robust but not by much afaict.
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Many people still don’t believe in negative numbers. Sketchy AF.
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I don't even believe in positive
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I always assumed it was a place-holder, an answer-shaped object for "we don't know what this is yet." Cosmological 21st Century Here There Be Dragons. Are there scientists saying it's an actual thing?
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It’s evidence of life and astrophysicists don’t like that.
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