|
|
 Originally Posted by OngBonga
I've been reading about neutron stars, and apparently they can be virtually undetectable if they are not producing pulsars, or are not part of a binary system.
That said, how can we know that any "missing" matter in the universe is dark matter, and not simply neutron stars that we haven't yet found?
As ever, some people are blaming the WIMPS (weakly interacting massive particles), and ong is blaming the MACHOS (massive astrophysical compact halo objects).
Wimps are more likely than machos to be responsible for this one.
The distribution of dark matter is such that it would take a very high number of machos to account for it, and that would have a discernible effect on the light passing through them. Like, the sky looks blue because of light particles being redirected as they pass quite close to N2 molecules. Blue light is redirected the most (it's another 4th power relation), and the sky looks blue. Or something even more obvious like... darkness where light was blocked.
Keep in mind that a single neutron star is hard to detect, but you're talking about adding millions or billions of them to the solar system. If there were that many, it seems it'd be obvious that there were "particles" in the way of us looking at the galaxy.
EDIT:
This link to the astrophysical society says that there is some evidence for MACHOs. However, their data has ruled out the notion that dark matter is MACHOs. While there may be some MACHOs which contribute to the dark matter effects, they cannot be the whole explanation.
|
Reply With Quote