Dark Energy - Dark Matter... Do you believe?

Um...the standard model is not what you think it is

we HAVE discoverd neutrinos...and we HAVE determined they have mass (we have observed them change, which means they experience time, which means they have mass).

"HOW many of you believe in Dark Matter?"

'The hell kind of question is that? I ACCEPT that there is a likely kind of matter that we cannot see--that does not emit electromagnetic radiation--because we can see and measure it's effects.

Addendum:

I didn't say we detected dark matter; I said NEUTRINOS.

"Dashes - Name the source. Dark matter has not been detected."

'Antineutrinos were first detected in 1953 near a nuclear reactor. Reines and Cowan used two targets containing a solution of cadmium chloride in water.'

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutrino#Neutrino_det...

Dark matter is simply mass that isn't doing anything that causes it to glow. I certainly have no problem believing in such things as cold dust. I see no reason why the all the mass in the universe has to be in the form of things that glow so we can see them on our telescopes. I have a harder problem with dark energy, and I'm really hoping that somebody actually successfully revises general relativity to cope with it. I think it would be really exciting to live through such a significant revolution in physics. Keep in mind that GR is an incredibly successful theory, so the next theory would still make all the same predictions that GR does in places where it's been successful (as GR does with Newtonian mechanics). The new theory, whenever it appears will identify limits on the domain of applicability of GR.

Honey, neutrinos were detected years ago. They are, I'll grant, elusive, but they aren't just theoretical.

As for dark energy and dark matter - well, something has to account for the mass of the universe, and the matter we can see is insufficient. "Dark matter" is just a label applied to the missing matter in the universe. So, sure - I believe in it. I don't understand it, but then neither does anyone else, so I don't feel too bad about it.

Edit: You seem to be under the impression that neutrinos are dark matter. It's a misimpression.

We know there's dark matter. In addition to neutrinos, there are things like planet's and comets. (How much material is ejected from an forming solar system?) There are black holes and cold neutron stars, although there should not be black dwarfs, yet. We don't know if there is is enough dark matter for the model. Of course, we don't know how close to ultimate the Standard Model or Relativity are.

I don't think that you should use the word know. Most of this is still theory. It may be the best model we have for the universe at this moment, but I am sure that in 1000 years the theory, that will be accepted, will be quite different. We must have our theories, but don't get to caught up in them. They change many time over time.

if it's real i would like to know what it is made of, of course. i guess most astrophysicists share this sentiment. it isn't neutrinos, by the way. neutrino masses and densities are fairly well known and are far too small to account for all dark matter.

This is a question of cosmology and physics, not religion. No one "believes in" these things in the religious sense.

Also, I think you're confused about neutrinos.

Try the astronomy section?

I don't care enough about dark matter to decide whether I should believe in it or not.

Fine, I decide what I should believe in by how much I care about it. Like God, He's important but there's no evidence for God, so I choose not to believe in Him.

I believe that it is a reasonable Hypothesis. I would need more proof in order to consider it fact.

I believe it's there; it would explain a lot of things in the universe.