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by debodun on May 11th, 2008

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I saw a scientific documentary on TV yesterday which mentioned "dark matter" in the universe. Is dark matter the same as anti-matter?

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  • by Im Alec has abandoned this account on May 11th, 2008

    Im Alec has abandoned this account

    No. Dark matter is something that has been invented to explain the fact that there seems much more mass in galaxies than we can account for by counting the visible matter - stars, dust clouds etc. Galaxies spin to fast to hold together if there is not some extra matter to provide the gravitational "glue" to hold it together. So astronomers believe that there is extra matter which they cannot see, and therefore call "dark matter".

    Anti-matter is at the other end of the spectrum of physics. For every particle there is an anti-particle, and if the two meet, they combine and annihilate each other, their masses being converted into energy. Anti-particles are created in some physical processes and can be created in particle accelerators. But because the world is overwhelmingly made up of matter, they soon hit something and are annihilated.

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  • by Doc2000 on May 11th, 2008

    Doc2000

    They are not the same, as dark matter density is about 10 times that of matter in our universe, whereas anti-matter and matter are equally prevalent and balance each other... as long as they dont come into contact with one another, because then they "annihilate" and release there combined energy mass.

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  • by HDev is living On tHE EdgE on May 11th, 2008

    HDev is living On tHE EdgE

    No, dark matter is something which cannot be seen but its presence can be felt by other methods. See here for further details http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_matter

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  • by Doubly Ugly on May 11th, 2008

    Doubly Ugly

    No. We can make anti-matter, but we only know that dark matter exists due to its effect on large systems like glaxies. Anti-matter is similar but opposite to regular matter, e.g. an electron has a certain mass and charge. The positron is its anti-matter equivalent. It has the same mass and size of charge, but the charge is positive. When matter and anti-matter meet, they annihilate each other. We don't see dark matter doing that, as there would be energy left over that we could detect.

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