In Avi Loeb's conversation with Professor Goodman, the most surprising takeaway for me was the discussion of dark matter. I find the uncertainty around dark matter fascinating because Avi Loeb commented that scientists use what they know about dark matter now to make calculations, but they have no idea how/if dark matter will change in the future. There seem to be limited opportunities for discovering more about dark matter which leaves scientists with unknown levels of uncertainty meaning that in a way, we don't know how much we don't know. This uncertainty also prevents scientists from engaging in incredible "space archeology" and digging into the past in space like we do on Earth. I also found it interesting that dark matter can also lead to a decay of the vacuum which is known as "dark energy." Overall, dark energy stuck out to me in this conversation because of its hypothetical nature, and how it's so unlike anything on earth.
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Hi Oliver! I very much enjoyed reading your comment and completely share your fascination with dark matter. Reflecting on what we learned in class (there must be dark matter to explain the physical dynamics of the universe, but we do not really know what it is), it is super striking to me that there is something so seemingly important that we do not know anything about. I like your comment on uncertainty: "we don't know how much we don't know" and I think it accurately reflects the dark matter discourse.
Hi Oliver. Thank you so much for your comment! I also find the idea of trying to model based off circumstances that we are not completely knowledgeable of to be fascinating. I do not know too much about astronomy, let alone dark matter, so I would like to add to your post and ask how are we able to use a variable that we do not have complete information on? What makes us so certain that our models are becoming more accurate? Also I did some background research and found that it is believed that there are galaxies with no dark matter, but if it plays a large role in celestial creation, how is this possible? Just like you, I found this to be a quite fascinating topic, especially with its regard to uncertainty!