Re: “Deep Down And Dark - Stawell’s Genius Lair” (Cosmos Magazine, Issue 94) -
On p.34 is the statement, “Because the Earth is physically moving through space as it travels around the Sun, researchers think that we might see a change in the amount of dark matter we see as we move …” This sounds eerily similar to the Michelson-Morley experiment of 1887. This experiment compared the speed of light in perpendicular directions as we travel around the Sun in an attempt to detect the “luminiferous aether”. But this experiment yielded no results to prove a difference between the speed of light in the direction of motion through the presumed aether, and the speed at right angles. Then, less than 20 years later, along came Albert Einstein and Special Relativity with the answer to the puzzle … the flexibility of space-time.
Perhaps WIMPs and so on are the modern equivalent of the aether. The answer to the puzzle of dark matter might be the modern version of space-time’s flexibility … which could be the idea that mathematics doesn’t merely describe the universe, but that the universe is actually composed of maths. Cosmologist Max Tegmark from MIT (the Massachusetts Institute of Technology) is the best known promoter of this idea. My personal belief is that the mathematical universe could be built using binary digits, Mobius strips, figure-8 Klein bottles, Wick rotation, and vector-tensor-scalar geometry.
Another counterpart to aether and WIMPs is the proposed planet Vulcan. In the 1800s (even as early as the 1600s), some people proposed this planet to exist between the Sun and Mercury in order to account for irregularities in Mercury’s orbit (its precession). The need for the planet as an explanation for Mercury's orbital peculiarities was later rendered unnecessary when Einstein's 1915 theory of general relativity showed that these are well-explained by effects arising from the curvature of spacetime caused by the Sun's mass.
Finally, the orbits of certain Trans-Neptunian Objects may likewise have nothing to do with astronomy’s versions of the physical aether and WIMPs (the physicality of Planet 9 or a mini black hole). Mercury’s large precession (due to its closeness to the Sun) may disprove the existence of Planet 9 because a diagram of Mercury's orbit can display an ascending pattern while its perihelion on the opposite side of the Sun maintains a constant level, while a diagram of the orbits of certain Trans Neptunian Objects displays a (less orderly) ascending or descending pattern on one side of the Sun while the greatest part of the orbit of the alleged cause of their perihelia being attracted to more-or-less the same point in space (Planet Nine) is on the other side of the Sun - the actual cause for the attraction of their perihelia would be precession, which affects all objects in the solar system.
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Fig. 1 – Mercury's orbit with its perihelion’s constant level on the left and ascending pattern on the right
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Fig. 2 – Trans Neptunian Objects, a.k.a. TNOs, and Planet 9 with ascending pattern of the TNOs on the left and the supposed cause of the positions of their perihelia - Planet 9, with the dotted red orbit - on the right
There is absolutely no dark matter and dark energy to control the manner of the movement of planets .
Preston Guynn
Referring to your comment, "The magazine you are reading sounds like rather dated science fiction instead of science". I agree that Cosmos magazine does have its limits though I wouldn't call it science fiction. In places, it necessitates reading between the lines as well as thinking for yourself in order to figure out what they're truly saying, and necessitates doing further reading in other books.
In other words, it encourages flexibility by not causing you to be tied down to one point of view. You need to think, consider that magazine plus other research, and decide if science's present teaching is correct or if (and in what manner) it needs adjusting (history shows that scientific ideas are never "set in concrete").
Preston Guynn
Many thanks, Preston! Your mention of "frame of reference" reminded me of this article I posted on ResearchGate - Preprint Special Relativity's Consequences For General Relativity, Qu...
INTRODUCTION / ABSTRACT
Principle points addressed by this article –
1) According to Special Relativity, experiments are overrated by modern science since the truths revealed by experimentation are necessarily restricted to one frame of reference.
2) According to the summary of vector-tensor-scalar (VTS) geometry, interaction of gravitation and electromagnetism produces a momentum in gravitons and photons (and a pressure which is known as mass).
3) It must be remembered that referring to space alone is incomplete. Living in space-time, it’s necessary to add some sentences about the time factor in order to explain the Higgs, the electroweak force, and the nuclear forces.
4) Formation of planets and black holes is directly related to VTS geometry.
5) Dark matter and dark energy are related to quaternion functions in Wick rotation, producing a universe that neither expands nor contracts.
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