Thursday, September 8, 2016

Mario Livio



DARK MATTER, I'M THINKING

Astrophysicist MarioLivio’s lecture at the Univ. of South Carolina’s Hollings Library yesterday reminded me that some things are incomprehensible, such as the size of the Universe or the meaning of time. It’s taken me a while to understand that the light of stars we see at night is billions of years old by the time we see it. We’re actually looking into the past. 


Dr. Mario Livio lectures at Univ. of SC
Is it possible to imagine 200 billion galaxies, each with billions of stars? Dr. Livio threw out that number in describing what we can see in the observable universe. What we can’t see is a whole other idea.

Since scientists have actually been able to detect Dark Matter, we’ve become aware of an unseen, if not mysterious, presence in the Universe. And there’s more. Now Dr. Livio says there is Dark Energy. “We don’t see it, we just see the effect.” What we can see and perceive with our senses is only 5% of the matter that exists.

What next? Is there no end to what we don’t know? What we can’t see? Dr. Livio said, “We are in the Universe and the Universe is in us.” Now figure that one out.

Dr. Livio is a prolific writer with books such as Brilliant Blunders; Is God a Mathematician; and The Equation That Couldn’t be Solved on Amazon

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