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Old 06-October-2005, 01:57 PM
mcsejung mcsejung is offline
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Join Date: Mar 2005
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Thumbs up Frame Dragging the edges of galaxies

Quote:
Originally Posted by TravisM
Nope. Dark matter was postulated in an effort to explain the orbital period of stars on the outer edge of galaxies. The closer to the core the higher the velocity, the smaller the period of the orbit. Now it follow logically that, like the planets in the solar system, the farther out the slower the velocity, greater orbital period. But, the expected decline of orbital period toward the edge of a given galaxy didn't happen as rapidly as the standard calculations of gravity had predicted. Either something's wrong with our equations on the scale of a galaxy, or there's more mass in a galaxy that we can't detect.... We guess it's matter... Dark Matter.
Could it be something else? Such as "frame dragging." I recall that a test by NASA has proven that locally in earth orbit (no dark matter near the earth) that "frame dragging" does indeed occur. I'm unsure if the fabric of space itself is being moved.

But you would need a whole lot of gravity to move the space fabric itself, something on the order of a planet shows a small drag. How big would it be for gee a whole galaxy?

Now could we move a region of space (and everything in that region) faster than the speed of light? Special relativity does not preclude this idea.
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