An award winner at NASA for his research and teaching, and an internationally acclaimed pioneer in research on gravity, Richard Hammond, Ph.D., reveals the truth about dark matter and energy.

By Dr. Richard Hammond

It is the Roaring Twenties and the great telescopes of the day open a new window to the universe revealing strange and unpredictable behavior across the vast space of our cosmos. Astronomers discover entire new galaxies as we come to realize our majestic Milky Way is no more unique than a tree in a forest. Stranger yet, these great “island universes,” as galaxies were once called, millions of light years away, are speeding through space.

By the end of the decade, in 1929, the astronomer Edwin Hubble made an extraordinary discovery, bringing some order to flying galaxies as they rocket through space. He found that all of the distant galaxies are moving away from us, and equally intriguing, the farther the galaxy, the faster it moves. The only sensible interpretation of these bizarre revelations is to assume the universe itself is expanding.

Before this, for century after century, it was believed that the universe was a static, unbending framework. Although planets and other celestial objects may move, the cosmos, on the whole, is as rigid as granite. In the preceding decade Albert Einstein developed his famous General Theory of Relativity. He even went so far as to apply his equations to the entire cosmos, giving a mathematical structure for our universe as had never been done. But he failed! Unable to let go of the abiding model of a static universe, Einstein went so far as to alter his theory, adding a “cosmological constant,” so that his theory could accommodate a frozen universe. But Hubble’s observations destroyed this age-old notion, as we finally came to understand our universe is growing every day.

In the decades following Hubble’s result, the evidence piled higher and higher, and Hubble’s ideas were validated. The only debate that remained dealt with the rate of expansion. Since gravity is an attractive force, it was realized that all of the countless galaxies pull on each other, and so, the expansion was expected to be slowing down. Astronomers were so confident that the expansion was slowing down they coined the term deceleration parameter, which would describe the quantitative rate of deceleration. The biggest remaining debate was whether the universe, though slowing, would expand forever, or at some future time reach a maximum size and stop, and then begin its inevitable journey to final collapse—the big crunch.

Astronomers continued making careful measurements of the most distant galaxies in the universe, using every scrap of physics and ingenuity to calculate the speed of these distant worlds. Nothing shocked the community more than a paper published in 1998, describing the results of these meticulous measurements: the rate of expansion of the universe is increasing!

All of the mass and energy in the universe should act like cosmic brakes, slowing the expansion and pulling all of the galaxies together, but now we had to wonder if some new, mysterious force could be pushing everything apart. All of the mass and energy that we have ever observed tends to pull things together, and no one has ever observed the kind of energy that could push our far-flung galaxies apart at ever increasing rates. This was so shocking that even the deceleration parameter was misnamed, so now we find that this number is in fact negative, the mathematical way of saying we are suffering a positive acceleration.

This is not the first time we were caught off guard. When astronomers began measuring the speeds of galaxies in clusters, and later, when they measured the speed of individual stars in the outer regions of galaxies, they were hit with another bombshell—the outer stars were moving too fast. These scofflaws were not just a little out of line, like speeders ticketed on the freeway, they were zipping along at ten times the speed limit, ten times what the theory allowed. This precipitated an explosive program of experiment and theory, where the basic laws of gravity were put under the microscope of scrutiny, and our entire concept of what a galaxy is, and what matter is, were put on trial.

To reconcile these extraordinary observations with our theories, we have begun to believe that a galaxy is filled with another kind of matter, a new kind of matter that does not interact with light as ordinary matter does—dark matter. For decades we have been looking for this baffling new form of matter, whether it be theoretically predicted particles like axions, or remnants from string theory. For a while, some thought this to be biggest problem in all of physics and astronomy. But then came dark energy.

When we say dark matter, we are being literal: We do not see it, and perhaps we can never see it. Dark energy is a bit metaphoric, we cannot see what it is, but more, we cannot understand what it is. We understand, through the famous formula,, that energy is equivalent to mass, and from this we conclude that all forms of energy in the universe, like mass, tend to pull our myriad galaxies together.

But recent observations are telling us this is false. Something is causing the galaxies to push themselves apart like prisoners in a jailbreak. Flying apart at ever increasing rates, the galaxies reveal that the universe is expanding faster than ever before, but we cannot understand why. In desperation, we invent the concept of dark energy, an inscrutable substance that gives rise to a cosmological repulsion causing the cosmos to grow faster than ever before.

So, what can dark energy be? Many believe this is the most pressing issue in physics today, but gather up a horde of physicists in a room and ask, “What is dark matter?” and we will argue like politicians at a convention. One idea actually goes back to Einstein himself. His idea of the cosmological constant seemed superfluous when we consider an expanding universe, and Einstein even called it his biggest blunder, but “one decade’s blunder can be another decade’s salvation.” This term can act like a cosmic repulsion, but we no longer think it is really constant, and we have no other evidence of its existence.

Another idea comes from vacuum itself. According to quantum theory, vacuum is not the empty ghost town, as we used to think of it, lifeless and devoid action. The vacuum is bustling with as much energy as a boom town: Particles are created and then destroyed, and even the real estate is changing, as space and time are whipped to a foam-like frenzy at the very small scale. The “vacuum energy” may be part of the solution, but there is a long way to go before we have sufficient evidence to know.

Or, perhaps our theories are wrong. Long ruling theories of physics have been dethroned before, when they are pushed to new realms where they have never been tested. It is possible that Einstein’s theory must be modified again, or maybe a whole new theory is necessary. And perhaps it is nothing we can think of, and we will have to wait until future observations will give us the clues necessary to solve this riddle. Time will tell.

I tuned into Mystery of the Crystal Skulls last night and watched it for the first hour and a half before I got disgusted by the cult of crystal worshipers. The first segment of the show was interesting in that it talked about how the crystal skull was discovered by treasure hunter, Anna Mitchell-Hedges in the 1920s. More were discovered by her father, F.A. Mitchell-Hedges.

While it is said that these skulls are scattered throughout the world, the focus of this search remained in Central America, where the first skull was discovered. Bill Homann, widower of the late Anna Mitchell-Hedges and owner of the crystal skull, led the expedition through the jungles. His wife had given him the crystal skull as well as some treasure maps before she died in 2007.

Another interesting aspect of the show were the scientific experiments performed on this skull. Scientists immersed it into an alcohol solution as well as a laser experiment in order to determine how the skull was made and if, in fact, it contained hidden data that would save the planet from an apocalypse. If skull did contain any information, the scientists couldn’t find it. They did state, however, that it would have taken the Mayans 300 years of polishing and shaping to make this crystal skull. Even more fascinating was the fact that they didn’t find any telltale signs of tool markings on the crystal. So, how was it made?

Well, there are several theories, but I’ll discuss the one I remember the most. Former NASA consultant, Richard Hoagland theorizes that the skull was made by aliens and brought to the Mayas. If you are unfamiliar with Hoagland, read A New Shot of the Face of Mars. The show veers from its original theme as Hoagland discusses the controversial photographs taken by NASA, which he believes are evidence of an alien civilization that was once on Mars. That extraterrestrial theory is possible, although there is no evidence to support what Hoagland believes is fact.

After a commercial break, the show returns to Homman, who is trying to find another skull in the Belize jungle as well as the waters off the coast. He found another burial site in the jungle, but couldn’t excavate it without a permit. So he turned to the coast, only to get discouraged by the strong current and weather.

When Mystery of the Crystal Skulls delved into the healing power of crystals and crystal worshipers, my husband and I decided that we’d had enough and turned off the television. Another thing that irritated us was the constant references to the new Indiana Jones movie that is due to hit theaters this Thursday. Yes, we know what the movie is based on. To us, it didn’t have a place in a documentary.

That said, what we watched intrigued us enough to discuss it afterwards. I’ve always wondered what happened to the Mayas, who vanished without a trace. My husband is intrigued by the astrological aspects of the various ruins around the world. He believes that if this show had any scientific validity, it would have been broadcast on the Discovery Channel and not the Sci-Fi Channel. I can’t help but see his point.

Five thousand years ago, the Mayans carved 13 crystal skulls, scattering them all over the earth in order to protect mankind from the apocalypse that they predicted will occur December 21, 2012.

Tonight, Lester Holt will host a special investigative show on the Sci-Fi Channel that delves into the perplexing mysteries of these skulls. The show starts at 9/8 central. Don’t miss it!

Source: SouthBendTribune.com

I found myself smiling as I read the interview with William Shatner Vulture Chatroom. This guy is so funny. I enjoyed the part of the interview where he was propositioned by Koko the gorilla. But then he piqued my curiosity when he fessed up to lying about his UFO experience. Since I don’t follow UFO stories as much as ghost stories, I did a bit of research to see what I could find. Here is one variation of the story.

Quoted from Blurtit

. . . Shatner had a bizarre UFO experience while riding his motorcycle with friends in the Mojave desert. Supposedly Shatner’s bike stopped working properly. He crashed and became disoriented and his friends mysteriously lost track of him. Shatner claimed to see some kind of shadowy apparition beckoning him from the edge of the horizon. He followed this apparition for hours, eventually arriving at a petrol station where Shatner claimed he saw a silvery, metallic disc hovering overhead.

My search turned up another interesting tidbit (see link below), a video Shatner did with his daughter, Liz. The part where he talks about life on Mars is at the end of the segment, but you can fast-forward to the end. Be prepared for some vague claims.

Shatner Claims to Know About Life on Mars . . . Really