--- "Robert J. Bradbury" <bradbury@aeiveos.com> wrote:
>
>
> On Mon, 15 May 2000, Dan Adams wrote:
>
> > It was a joke Mitch - I'm fully aware of the
> frontiers
> > of high energy physics. Interestingly, it has
> > recently been demonstrated that we live in an open
> > universe consisting of roughly 5% matter, 35% dark
> > matter, and 60% dark energy.
>
> If that has been "demonstrated" it is a theoretical
> result unconfirmed by experimental data. I know of
> nothing that has settled the composition of the
> universe definitively one way or another.
>
> The astronomers at the gravitational microlensing
> conference in South Africa in Feb. voted out
> highly inconclusively (something like
> 50%:30%:27%:2%)
> on what the cause of their observations is. If
> they can't figure out whether or not what they
> are seeing is black holes, brown dwarfs & gas cloud
> clusters, or anomolies in the shapes of galaxies,
> then I would say conclusions such as you cite above
> are tentative at best.
>
> If you have any references for this claim I would
> enjoy
> looking at them.
>
> Robert
Here's the information you requested. Both sites are
relevant.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_746000/746066.stm
- This is the one that demonstrates the
compostition.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_727000/727073.stm#
- This one demonstrates that the geometry is Euclidean
(i.e. light unbent by graitation will continue in a
straight line to infinity)
And here is a third article I think you might find
interesting - note especially :
"The best explanation for the observations requires
that over large distances gravity becomes a repulsive
force, not an attractive one."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_506000/506349.stm
Yeaaaa! No heat death for us! Now, if we can just
find a way to punch a hole in that pesky
ten-dimensional space-time...but, that's another post :-)
=====
-------
Dan Adams
Boston College
617.782.4050
"I cannot articulate enough to express my dislike to people who think that understanding spoils your experience...How would they know?"
- Marvin Minsky
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Jul 27 2000 - 14:11:15 MDT