About The Mystery Of The Dark
Matter In Space
By James Donahue
An international team of astronomers
recently used NASA's Hubble telescope to capture an image of a "ghostly ring" of what they called dark matter deep in another
galaxy.
They said this ring was formed long
ago during a "titanic collision" between two galaxies, and it is the first time that a dark matter distribution has not only
been observed, but photographed.
What was remarkable about this story
is that dark matter is, by its very definition, an invisible something that astronomers now theorize comprises a large part
of the universe. If it exists, they say it cannot be seen because it appears to be the opposite of "ordinary matter," or the
stuff of which the suns and planets and other visible objects in our universe is made of.
Astronomers came to the conclusion that
not only dark matter, but something called dark energy exists in that vacuum of deep space because of the way the stars and
solar systems and even the galaxies all behave as part of the whole. They say that the very laws of physics, as understood
by science, concludes that there has to be an invisible substance of something in the midst of all that vast darkness that
holds everything together in the harmonious rhythm of movement that we observe as our new battery of high powered telescopes
probe to the very edge of space.
And therein dwells the great mystery.
Whatever is out there exists within a vacuum, it is invisible to us, we believe we can fly space probes through it without
obstruction, yet scientists say it must exist.
That
the only probes to ever leave our solar system, Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11, have strangely altered course and slowed down after
passing Pluto, has some scientists thinking that dark matter may be the cause. There is a movement within NASA to send a new
probe into deep space to find out more.
There is another thought in all of this
that has been kicked around among the more philosophical cluster of scientific thinkers. They conjecture that the blackness
of deep space remains invisible to us because we are blinded by our inability to utilize the full extent of our brains.
People who study such things say that
every human brain has the potential of reaching a point where it has up to 100 billion electrons firing, although few of us
get beyond about 10 percent of this number working within our lifetime. In a strange parallel, or perhaps by design, astronomers
estimate that there are 100 billion stars in our galaxy, but we can only see about 10 percent of what exists. The rest of
our universe is comprised of darkness or invisible matter.
The question then is, if we could learn
to turn on all of the neurons in our brains and by utilizing both left and right hemispheres at the same time, get all 100
billion neurons firing at the same time, could we see and possibly understand the rest of the universe?
And if this is possible, what else would
be visible to us?
Psychics and spiritual leaders talk
about opening that third eye so we can see "beyond the veil." Indeed, this appears to be a scientific way of explaining exactly
what the spiritualists are talking about. There is an active spiritual world that surrounds us. Some believe that it may be
possible to not only observe this second universe that surrounds us, but under the right circumstances, we may be able to
step into it.
This is extremely abstract thinking
for most of us. Only people like Stephen Hawking and a few other mental giants of the world have such concepts of understanding
in their heads. It was Hawking who once said that the truth of everything is so simple that the day is soon coming when in
a flash, everyone will know it.