Dark Matter — The Greatest Mystery of The Universe | VICE on HBO
Summary
TLDRThe script delves into humanity's quest to explore the cosmos, focusing on the Very Large Telescope and the Large Underground Xenon Experiment (LUX) as tools to unravel the mysteries of dark matter and dark energy. It explains the concept of dark matter as an unseen force that binds galaxies and the role of dark energy in the accelerating expansion of the universe. The video also highlights the technological advancements and scientific discoveries that have emerged from our pursuit to understand these cosmic phenomena, emphasizing the continuous nature of scientific inquiry and its potential to innovate and improve our lives.
Takeaways
- 🌌 Telescopes like the Very Large Telescope (VLT) allow us to explore the universe and answer fundamental questions about its origins and nature.
- 🔍 The VLT is the most advanced optical observatory, enabling us to look back over 13 billion years into the past.
- 🌌 95% of the universe's composition remains unaccounted for, with only 5% of matter being visible and following known laws of physics.
- 🌐 The existence of dark matter is inferred from the gravitational effects it has on galaxies, preventing them from flying apart despite the forces acting upon them.
- 🔬 The Large Underground Xenon (LUX) experiment is designed to detect dark matter by using an ultra-quiet environment deep underground to shield from cosmic rays.
- 🌌 The Milky Way's rotation suggests the presence of dark matter, as there would need to be nearly ten times more matter than currently observed for the observed rotation to occur.
- 🔍 Dark matter particles, known as WIMPs (Weakly Interacting Massive Particles), are expected to pass through Earth with minimal interaction.
- 🔬 The LUX experiment uses a dual-tank system filled with purified water and supercooled liquid xenon to detect potential dark matter interactions.
- 🌐 The search for dark matter has led to the discovery of dark energy, a force that is causing the universe's expansion to accelerate.
- 🌌 The Very Large Telescope array in Chile played a crucial role in identifying dark energy by observing distant supernovae and their implications on the universe's expansion.
- 🌐 The understanding of dark matter and dark energy could potentially revolutionize physics, similar to how Newton's laws and Einstein's theories of relativity transformed our understanding of motion and energy.
Q & A
What is the main purpose of the Very Large Telescope?
-The Very Large Telescope is the most advanced optical observatory in the world, allowing us to gaze 13 billion years into the past and answer fundamental questions about the universe's origins, composition, and future.
What percentage of the universe's composition is currently unaccounted for?
-95% of the universe's composition cannot be accounted for with the current understanding of physics, while the remaining 5% of matter we can perceive abides by the known laws of physics.
What is dark matter and why is it significant?
-Dark matter is a mysterious type of particle that exerts a gravitational force, binding galaxies together. It is significant because it helps explain why galaxies do not fly apart due to the forces of rotation.
What is the Large Underground Xenon (LUX) experiment and its purpose?
-The LUX experiment is the world's most sensitive dark matter detector, designed to search for dark matter by providing a quiet environment deep underground to shield from cosmic rays and detect weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs).
Why is the LUX experiment located a mile beneath the ground?
-The experiment is placed deep underground to find a quiet environment free from cosmic rays, which are produced in the upper atmosphere and could interfere with the detection of dark matter particles.
What are WIMPs and how do they interact with the environment?
-WIMPs, or weakly interacting massive particles, are hypothetical particles that make up dark matter. They are called 'weakly interacting' because they rarely interact with other matter, passing through the Earth with minimal interaction.
How does the search for dark matter at CERN differ from the LUX experiment?
-At CERN, scientists use the Large Hadron Collider to recreate conditions similar to those of the Big Bang, attempting to produce and detect dark matter particles through high-energy collisions of protons.
What is the connection between dark matter research and the discovery of dark energy?
-The search for an explanation of the observed rotation speeds of galaxies led to the discovery of dark matter, and further observations of supernovae revealed the existence of dark energy, an unknown force causing the universe's expansion to accelerate.
What is the significance of the discovery of dark energy?
-Dark energy is significant because it challenges our understanding of gravity and the universe's expansion. Its discovery implies that there is a force causing the universe to expand at an accelerating rate, contrary to what would be expected with gravity alone.
How has the technology developed for understanding the universe impacted our daily lives?
-Technological advancements made for space exploration and understanding the universe, such as the invention of the World Wide Web at CERN, have led to innovations that have become integral to our daily lives, improving communication and data analysis.
What is the role of asking big questions in scientific innovation?
-Asking big questions drives scientific innovation by pushing the boundaries of knowledge and inspiring the development of new technologies and methods to explore and understand complex phenomena, such as dark matter and dark energy.
Outlines
🔭 The Quest for Dark Matter
The first paragraph introduces the Very Large Telescope, the world's most advanced optical observatory, as a metaphorical spaceship that allows us to explore the universe and peer 13 billion years into the past. It discusses the mystery of the universe's composition, where 95% of it remains unaccounted for, known as dark matter. This invisible force is hypothesized to bind galaxies together, contrary to what would be expected based on the visible matter and the laws of physics. The paragraph also touches on the Large Underground Xenon Experiment (LUX), a highly sensitive dark matter detector, and explains the need for a quiet environment to shield from cosmic rays, which could interfere with the detection of dark matter.
🌌 Unraveling the Secrets of the Universe
The second paragraph delves into the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, where scientists attempt to recreate conditions similar to those of the Big Bang to study particles at an unprecedented level. The LHC is used to search for dark matter, theorized to be composed of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs), which rarely interact with ordinary matter. The paragraph also discusses the discovery of dark energy, a force that is causing the universe's expansion to accelerate, and the role of the Very Large Telescope Array in this discovery. It highlights the importance of understanding these fundamental forces and particles, as they may hold the key to answering some of the biggest questions in physics.
🚀 The Impact of Cosmic Exploration on Innovation
The final paragraph emphasizes the drive for innovation that comes from asking big, challenging questions. It points out that the technology developed for understanding the universe, such as image analysis software, has far-reaching applications, including medical imaging for cancer detection. The paragraph also touches on the invention of the World Wide Web at CERN as an example of how scientific exploration can lead to technologies that become integral to everyday life. It concludes by highlighting the perpetual nature of scientific discovery and the inherent human desire to explore new frontiers, which has been crucial to the success of our species.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Explorers
💡Very Large Telescope (VLT)
💡Dark Matter
💡Laws of Physics
💡Large Underground Xenon Experiment (LUX)
💡Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs)
💡CERN
💡Big Bang
💡Dark Energy
💡Supernovae
💡Innovation
Highlights
Telescopes are our current means of exploring the universe, allowing us to look 13 billion years into the past.
95% of the universe's composition remains unaccounted for, with only 5% of matter following known physics laws.
The existence of dark matter is inferred from the gravitational effects on galaxy rotation, suggesting unseen mass.
The Large Underground Xenon Experiment (LUX) is the world's most sensitive dark matter detector.
Dark matter is hypothesized to be 'WIMPs', weakly interacting massive particles that rarely interact with normal matter.
The LUX experiment uses a large water tank and liquid xenon to detect dark matter particles in a quiet environment.
Despite extensive searches, dark matter particles have not yet been directly detected, suggesting the need for larger detectors.
CERN's Large Hadron Collider recreates conditions of the Big Bang to study particles and potentially produce dark matter.
Dark matter could be a fundamental force of nature, and its discovery could revolutionize physics.
Understanding gravity at a microscopic level is incomplete, and dark matter could provide insights into this.
Dark energy, distinct from dark matter, is a force causing the universe's accelerated expansion.
The discovery of dark energy was made possible by observing supernovae and their unexpected distances.
The Very Large Telescope Array in Chile played a key role in the discovery of dark energy.
Technological advancements from space exploration have practical applications in areas like medical imaging.
The World Wide Web was invented at CERN to facilitate collaboration among scientists and engineers.
The Large Hadron Collider generated over 40 petabytes of data in 2015, offering vast potential for new discoveries.
The search for dark matter and understanding the universe drives innovation and has broad societal impacts.
Exploration of the unknown is a fundamental part of human nature and contributes to our species' success.
Science is a continuous process of discovery and adaptation to new observations.
Transcripts
[Music]
at our heart we humans are explorers and
it's telescopes like these that for now
are our spaceship to the stars
I'm standing here at the Very Large
Telescope which is the most advanced
optical Observatory in the world we can
gaze 13 billion years or more into the
past and answer questions like where it
would come from where are we going and
that most important question what is
this universe that we're living in what
scientists have discovered so far is
that 95% of what makes up our universe
simply can't be accounted for the 5% of
matter we can perceive abides by the
laws of physics as we understand them
but when scientists applied the laws of
gravity to how fast nearby galaxies are
rotating the math to nineveh their
calculations proved that there must be
missing matter since the forces should
be ripping the galaxies apart but they
don't the reason is because of a
mysterious type of particle known as
dark matter an invisible force which
binds these galaxies together
I believe that if we can solve this
mystery it may transform physics as we
know it in the same way that Isaac
Newton's laws of motion let's steam
locomotives and rockets and Albert
Einstein's theories of relativity paved
the way for satellites and nuclear power
and that has physicists scrambling to
find it we're gonna be using the page in
order to take a 10-minute long trip to
get ourselves over a mile on the ground
[Music]
Richard Gaitskell is the principal
investigator here at the large
underground xenon experiment or Lux the
world's most sensitive Dark Matter
detector why are we going down a mile
beneath the ground here in order to
search for Dark Matter we need to find a
really quiet environment cosmic rays are
produced in the upper atmosphere due to
very high-energy particles hitting it
what we do is we use that overburden the
rock to shield out the cosmic rays when
you take our Milky Way and just look at
how the stars are arranged in it it's
very clear that the whole thing is
rotating in order for that rotation to
be occurring at the speed it is it would
have to be nearly ten times more matter
in the Milky Way than we had any
evidence for the Milky Way shouldn't
hold together it should just fly apart
and the particles we're looking for
these dark matter we actually call them
wimps it's an acronym simply for weakly
interacting massive particles by week we
mean that they will simply pass through
the earth and out through the other side
only very occasionally because of the
properties of the wimp does it choose to
interact right now we're actually
standing on top of this enormous 80
thousand gallon water tank well I
thought another detector
Luntz Dark Matter detector is submerged
within this tank of highly purified
water inside a second tank is filled
with supercooled liquid xenon if a Dark
Matter particle strikes a xenon atom in
this ultra quiet environment the photo
sensors will measure this mysterious
particle so we've been looking for these
weakly interacting massive particles for
a very long time what have we found
nothing theorists continue to show that
dark matter could well be there and just
be so we can directly interact that we
haven't yet built a big enough detector
to see it people would dearly like to be
the first scientist to be standing on
top of an experiment that actually saw
mystery I mean without a doubt since we
can't capture this elusive particle in
Switzerland are actually trying to make
it themselves CERN's Large Hadron
Collider actually recreates the
conditions of the Big Bang to study
particles on an unprecedented level
dr. Tulley caboose has sifted through
the data produced by the collider
looking for dark matter characteristics
this is where the heart of the
experiment is you have a beam of protons
going in one of the beam pipes in a
certain direction and another beam of
protons going in the other beam pipe in
the opposite direction
there are four points where the beam
pipes are made to intersect and that is
happening in the center of the detection
here so the beams collide and you have
this explosion a mess of particles that
comes out and what we are trying to see
as a result of this is what are these
particles that are produced what we are
doing is with these collisions
recreating what must have happened
moments after the Big Bang I mean these
are kind of little moments of creation
that are happening inside these
detectors every time that beam of
protons collide we can theorize that
dark matter came out of the same
processes the same creation out of
BIGBANG that everything else was made
out of so I guess if you're able to
recreate the Big Bang in a way in these
detectors you'll also be able to produce
darkness and that is one of our major
goals will the biggest machine in the
world to sort of understand the tiniest
of particles because they will give us
clues to the big questions if they
manage to find new particles it could
prove the missing link of a fundamental
force of nature that most people assume
we understand gravity so I think most of
us think we have a pretty good
understanding of gravity I mean we see
how it works in our everyday lives and
planets rotate around the Sun and you
know galaxies continue to spin and
spiral but what's missing about this
picture of gravity what what don't we
know so we understand gravity at the
macroscopic level and sense off you know
it keeps us you know on this floor
surrounded here however we don't really
at the microscopic or the particle level
so the depart achill picture of gravity
and how it fits into the standard model
is incomplete potentially these answers
could bridge us to words answering the
question of dark energy the search for
an answer to the mystery of dark matter
led to an even bigger discovery dark
energy dark matter has the gravitational
effect of holding galaxies together but
dark energy is actually an entirely
different force that is expanding the
universe seemingly infinitely outward
the very large telescope array and Chile
was key to the discovery of this even
more mysterious force this telescope can
see down to 29th magnitude Wow so that's
a factor of a billion so if your eye
collects one Photon this thing collects
a billion photos brutal lymangood was a
member of one of the Nobel Prize winning
teams that shocked the world when they
discovered that not only was the
universe expanding this expansion was
actually accelerating
the way you found this dark energy this
acceleration of the universe was you
looked at supernovae yeah
what are supernovae so supernovae are
exploding stars that that gets to sit
this way of putting it that is a very
specific type of explosion which we
believe almost reaches the same
luminosity so it becomes bright Peaks
and then it fades away disappears if you
have your 60 volt bulb in your room
you know how much light that's gonna get
if you see the 60 watt bulb at your
neighbors it's gonna be fainter and if
you have a universe that just expands
regularly then you just plot this up on
a ruler and you will find an equal
distance but then we did the measurement
this isn't right the distant supernovae
are too far away
so yes the universe is expanding but it
looked like it was expanding even faster
the further you looked away now in a
universe with gravity alone you cannot
do that yeah what explains that so what
explains that well dargah - what is that
composer what is that
you tell me that's the question we'd
each answer back and while dark energy
and dark matter may not weigh on
people's minds each day we're actually
already benefitting from them by more
than just their gravitational poles
that's because the enormous amount of
technology that has been developed in
order to aid scientists as they seek to
better understand the universe has led
to incredible advancements that we now
take for granted in our everyday lives
so the world wide web was actually
invented here at CERN as a way for the
scientists and engineers to collaborate
and communicate and build these massive
physics experiments in 2015 the
experiments on the Large Hadron Collider
generated over 40 petabytes were the
data that's 40 billion gigabytes worth
of data and who knows what discoveries
and impacts on our lives will come from
the sifting through of the data to
discover things like dark matter and the
fundamental forces and particles that
make up our universe
[Music]
there's really no better driver of
innovation than just asking really
really big hard questions we use image
analysis software to see galaxies or
stars and now you use them to find
cancer in my question is how do I
understand dark energy better somebody
maybe will use that knowledge and
develop something different that makes
our lives better
[Music]
it's in the DNA of our species to
explore new frontiers this exploration
of the unknown is responsible for the
success of our species and by better
understanding our universe we empower
ourselves to solve the problems we face
and propel ourselves into the Stars
science is never finished when you have
new observations that show you something
else then you have to modify your
picture
science will go on forever because
there's always something new to discover
that's right
[Music]
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