Through a Universe Darkly

por Prof. Virginia Trimble (Univesity of California Irvine)

lunes 1 mar. 2010 12:00 → 13:00 Europe/Madrid

Sala Seminarios IFIC (Edf. Institutos de Investigación)

Dark matter is stuff that neither emits nor absorbs its fair share of radiation at any wavelength but does exert gravitational forces and so contributes to formation and stability of astronomical structures. Both the idea and the name are considerably older than most astronomers realize, and half a dozen or more entitities that one might now describe as \"dark matter candidates\" predate the 20th century. The talk will examine some of these and then focus on the gradual accumulation of data from about 1915 to 1975 that eventually persuaded most of our community that dark matter exists and is important. Just what it is, is a very different issue. A recent tabulation included 75 candidates, some better motivated than others, and the talk will end with an opportunity for those present to vote for their favorites (the speaker has changed her mind several times over the years).