According to today's issue of New American Scientific Discoveries, the Large Binocular Telescope has found out what the so-called Dark Matter really is. It has been a mystery why models of galactic rotation do not fit the observed masses of the galaxies, but instead a mass several times as large. That extra mass is called "dark matter" because it emits no light or not enough light to be seen.

Well, it turns out it does emit light, but we just weren't seeing it. However, the Large Binocular Telescope sees it just fine. The phenomenon was first noticed when the LBT was pointed at the Andromeda Galaxy and not one, but TWO identical images appeared partly superimposed. The experiment was repeated with many other galaxies, all giving the same result. It seems every galaxy is actually a double galaxy, but prior telescopes could not detect the "twin".

Physicist Halk Stevenson said that he had no idea why the LBT is able to see light that other telescopes can't. He did say that its ability to detect dark matter was dependent on collimation--a slight change in the aiming of one tube with respect to the other made it disappear.

We will remember April 1, 2008 forever as the historic day that the Dark Matter mystery was solved.

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Todd (Bowie, MD, US, North America, Earth, Sol System, Vega region, Local Bubble, Orion arm, Milky Way Galaxy, Local Group, Virgo A Cluster, Virgo supercluster, the universe in which spock is clean shaven)

Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur.

personal page: http://blog.astrosketches.info

April Fools!

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