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.
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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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